Maybe It's Meant To Be
by June Sujare
Summary: Revolves mostly around Aria & Ezra aka Ezria, plus tons of scenes w/ other characters from the show Spencer, Hanna, Emily, Caleb, Toby, Byron, Ella, Wren and more. Includes flashbacks from the show. Follows their lives through high school and beyond. R
1. Chapter 1

This fanfic was written between Seasons 2 and 3, but most of the scenes were formulated in my head during the first half of Season 2. It begins sometime after 2.10 Touched by an 'A'-ngel, so everything with Dr. Sullivan and the shovels never happened. Ezra never showed up at the police station. The only part that remains true from that episode is A forced Spencer to break up with Toby. Also, this story assumes that Ezra resigned from Rosewood High January-ish, which really, is what it should have been on the show, but they are not consistent with the timeline. FYI, Emily's mom never moved to Texas and Caleb never found his birth mom. Everything else is pretty much the same. Hope you enjoy! Please leave comments!

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"Where does Lucas think you're going tonight?" Hanna said to Caleb as he slipped into the passenger seat of her mother's sliver coup. He kissed her on the mouth then said, "The movies. He's a little ticked off. I told him I'd see this new horror flick with him. It's like his favorite director."

Hanna pulled away from the curb and sped down the picturesque street in Rosewood, Pennsylvania, sun setting.

"He's bummed he couldn't see it opening night. Danielle is dragging him to mini-golf with her friends. He'll probably grill me about every detail when I get back. Maybe we should actually go…"

"Are you kidding? It wasn't easy to get these keys from Spencer again. She said her dad almost noticed last time. Besides, I've got you covered." Hanna glanced at the backseat where her laptop case sat. "I downloaded a bootleg copy. We can actually watch it… if we're not too busy doing other things."

Caleb shot her a look and put his hand on her thigh. Hanna smiled, her eyes turning back to the road just in time to see the "Now Leaving Rosewood" sign fly past.

* * *

[Try not to judge the story by the first chapter. It is Ezria-centric, I promise. The first few chapters are set-up. ]


	2. Chapter 2

Aria reclined on Ezra's sofa, flipping through the pages of some trashy magazine. Ezra returned from the kitchen and set his glass on the coffee table, then he lifted her head as he sat and replaced it on his lap. The lamp on the side table glowed and faintest sound of talk radio could be heard drifting in from the apartment next door. Ezra picked up a stack of papers, clicked his pen, and sighed.

She looked up at him for a brief moment and smiled. He smiled back, then turned his attention to the papers in his hand, straightening them on the arm of the couch. Aria set down the magazine and in one deft move, flipped over and sat on her legs facing him. "What are you thinking?" she asked quizzically.

"That I shouldn't assign essays because then I have to grade them," he answered, not looking up.

She pulled the ponytail out of her hair, removed the papers from his hand and straddled him. "Now what are you thinking?" she whispered in his ear.

Ezra managed an, "umm…"

He glanced at the papers resting haphazardly on the side table, then back at Aria, gorgeous as ever, meeting his gaze. She moved closer and kissed him slowly. Even quieter than before she whispered, "Now what are you thinking?"

Aria got her answer when he leaned forward and his hands found her slim waist. They ran up her back and removed the fringed vest she was wearing. Her hands moved to the collar of his shirt to undo the tiny buttons. She gripped him tightly with her legs and placed her hands on his chest, lips meeting once again.

Aria pulled at his sleeve, and when it wouldn't come loose, Ezra leaned up and shrugged out of it. She followed suit by peeling the tight white tank top up over her head, revealing the soft pink lace bra underneath. Aria pressed herself against him, her hands running through his hair and his sliding down her back and further beyond. She inhaled deeply when Ezra pulled her even closer with one arm while the other cast about for the switch on the base of the lamp. The stack of English papers cascaded carelessly to the floor, but neither made a move to pick them up. They had other things on their minds.


	3. Chapter 3

Wren's hand reached for Spencer's as they strolled down the block towards his apartment. She finally let him have it after finding any excuse to pull away all night. She decided it felt nice and even gave his fingers a little squeeze. Out of the corner of her eye she could see his adorable grin. There was a slight chill in the air, and the unmistakeable scent of spring.

"Our first real date," he said. "What did you think?"

"I had a really nice time," Spencer conceded. She felt wrong about accepting his offer in the first place, having just broken up with Toby a few days before. It was one of the hardest things she ever had to do and who else but Wren was there to help her pick up the pieces? She nearly canceled a dozen times, but there was something so sweet about his persistence.. she couldn't say no.

"I knew you would." He swung her hand a bit, intertwining their fingers.

They walked in silence for a moment. She thought of the restaurant and how they laughed. It felt so comfortable to be there with him. The evening had flown by.

"This is me," he said, gesturing toward the brick face apartment building on their right. Spencer looked up and they came to a stop.

Wren repositioned himself in front of her, back toward the building. _This is it_, she thought. _Our fourth kiss_. She didn't move, just stared at his bottom lip as it moved closer and closer to hers. She tried not to kiss him back, but before long, found she couldn't help herself. When they parted, she smiled at him bashfully, having not intended to reciprocate quite so much.

"Come up for coffee?" he asked in his adorable English accent she'd always been so enamored by.

Thinking it probably wasn't the best idea, she answered, "I don't know…"

Their hands were still linked. With his free one, Wren reached for her other hand and took a step forward, kissing her, quite persuasively. "How about tea?"

"Tea sounds good," Spencer mumbled. She pushed down all the many feelings of guilt rising up in her brain, deciding, for once, not to over think things.

Wren led her up the stairs and fumbled for his keys. Spencer sighed, and followed him in the door.


	4. Chapter 4

"When does this concert start again?" Toby asked, looking at his watch.

"Midnight," Emily answered. "It starts at 9 on the west coast which is midnight for us. You don't want to stay up?"

"No, I do," Toby replied quickly, now tapping on his watch. "I think this thing is broken."

"Let me see." Emily crawled forward and removed the watch from his wrist. Pillows and blankets were scattered all over the floor of her bedroom, where they sat waiting for the live stream of their favorite band start up any minute. Emily returned to her place by the foot of the bed, then held the timepiece up to her ear. "I don't hear anything. It probably needs a new battery."

"Probably," Toby agreed.

Emily crawled back over to him and gingerly replaced the watch on his wrist, folding the clasp and clicking it shut. This time, she stayed next to him by the nightstand.

"Thanks for coming over tonight. The house feels kind of creepy when it's empty. My mom asked if I wanted to come with her to visit dad in Texas, but I wanted to stay to…" Emily looked down and trailed off.

"To see Maya?" Toby asked, finishing her sentence.

"How did you know?" she asked, but needed no answer. He was always good at guessing what was on her mind.

"Trust me, I'd rather be here than home, but how come you didn't invite Maya here tonight?" he inquired.

Emily sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder. "She said she just wants to be friends." She had thought for sure Maya being back meant they could pick up where they left off, but Maya evidently was not on the same page.

"Oh. I'm sorry," he replied genuinely. "I know how much you liked her."

"Yeah. You do," Emily agreed. "But Toby, I really want you to know that I liked you too. I didn't mean to string you along and cause this whole mess."

"I know," he said quietly.

Emily got her knees and looked him in the eye. "Do you? Because I mean it. I didn't know how I could like you both at the same time. I still don't."

Toby, honest to a fault, said, "Emily, I always liked you, but I could see the way you looked at her. It wasn't the same."

"How do you know? Maybe I was just confused. Or am confused."

"Confused about what?" he asked, perhaps finally hearing her say something unexpected.

"It's just that…" Emily bit her lip, "all this time, I felt sort of… jealous… seeing you with Spencer."

"I'd rather not talk about Spencer," he responded flatly. The breakup still stung. More than stung. He didn't understand it, but knew better than to ask Emily for an explanation.

"I know. Me neither. I just…" She looked at his face, eyes traveling over the contours of his forehead and cheekbones, across his jawline and settling on his lips.

"Just what?" he asked, for the first time not being able to guess the end of her sentence.

"I just… want to try something." Emily lifted her hands to his face and went in for a kiss. He was tense at first, then relaxed, effortlessly moving his lips with hers.

A few moments later, when Emily pulled away, Toby asked, "What was that for?"

She considered the question carefully. "I just wanted to see."

"And what did you see?"

"I don't know…," she answered honestly. "I want to try again." Without giving him time to protest, she kissed him again, deeper this time, and she could feel her heart start to pump. Toby rose to his knees and kissed her harder, pressing her to him by the small of her back. Emily leaned back onto one of her many pillows and he followed, crawling on top of her. She adjusted her position under his weight and licked at his tongue, deafened by the sound of her own heartbeat.

Emily lifted lifted Toby's t-shirt, giving him a chance to breathe and consider what they were doing. Out of breath, he asked, "Do you really want to do this? We shouldn't get-"

"How will I ever know?" she cut him off, answering his question with a question.

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure," Emily swore, pulling him down to her level. Sounds emanating from her computer, of cheering, the reverb of an electric guitar and the crashing of cymbals echoed around the room, but neither was listening.


	5. Chapter 5

_1 month later_

Spencer paced outside Wren's apartment, checking the time on her phone obsessively. She had been doing this for nearly 20 minutes. Twice she talked herself out of it and walked to the end of the hall, then turned back to pace the 4 square feet in front of his door.

Finally, Wren appeared, his brown curls and tan raincoat dotted with raindrops. Spencer inhaled, then breathed a sigh of relief, until she realized she had nothing to feel relieved about.

"What day is it? Did we have plans?" he asked, giving her a quick kiss then letting them inside.

Caught off guard, she answered, "Yes. We were supposed to go to the movies."

"Oh, right. Were you waiting long?" he asked, hanging his coat on the rack and dropping his briefcase on the floor. She had bought it for him last week thinking any self-respecting doctor should have a briefcase. Doctor, med-student, same-difference.

"No, not long," she lied. _Depends on your definition,_ she thought.

"Do you mind if we stay in tonight, Spence? I'm knackered. I had to pull a double shift."

"Sure, let's stay in," she answered quickly, relishing his choice of words.

"I'm also starved. I'm going to fix myself a sandwich. Do you want anything?" Wren moved toward the kitchen.

She seated herself on a stool across from him. "Sure, ok. No, never mind. No, I'll have one, that's fine."

He turned from the refrigerator and gave her a weird look, curious why she was acting so strange, but too tired to really wonder. "How 'bout a drink?"

"No, thanks." She thought of the night 3 weeks ago they'd taken the train into Philadelphia. They got a hotel room and shared half-a-dozen tiny bottles of scotch from the minibar.

"I have to talk to you," she said urgently.

"What about?" Wren asked, continuing to move about the small kitchen.

"I'm pregnant." The words hung heavily in the air for one second. "I think I'm pregnant. I think I might be pregnant," she amended.

Wren put the butter knife down and raised a hand to scratch his forehead.

Slowly he responded, "How could this happen?"

"I think you _know_ how this could happen," she answered sarcastically. She was tempted to add, 'and you call yourself a doctor?' but it was not the time or place for jokes.

He rubbed his temples. "Yes. I know."

Spencer perched a bit crazily on the edge of the stool, anxiously awaiting his next words.

"You think? You don't know?"

"No, I didn't take a test yet. I wanted to come talk to you first. What are we going to do if it's true?"

"I don't know." Wren resumed buttering his toast. She actually wasn't sure it was butter, but didn't want to look down and examine the substance further. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't know." _What a productive conversation this is_, she thought during the silence.

"Look, Spencer, you and I are having a bit of fun. We have chemistry, we get along, we laugh, we are good. But I really don't think a baby is in the cards for us. Don't you want to go to college? Don't you have big plans?"

"Of course! Do you think I want this? You think I planned it?" she shot back, defensively.

"No, of course not! I just want to be realistic. I can't be the guy who knocked up his ex-fiancée's _teenaged_ sister!"

She couldn't believe he just said that. "My age never mattered before." Affronted, Spencer pushed away from the counter to stand up.

"That didn't come out right. But you see my point? How could this possibly work? Your father will have me killed!"

"I see your point. Message received - loud and clear." Spencer turned, looking for her coat, then realized she didn't have one, and marched toward the door.

"Spencer, don't go," Wren said apologetically. "I'm sorry. I'm tired. It's all coming out wrong. Come back. We'll get a test then go from there."

"I'll take the test at home. Call you later," she responded and let the door slam behind her.


	6. Chapter 6

Aria fumbled around in her purse for the key to Ezra's apartment. Arms full of paper bags, she let herself in and closed the door behind her. "I brought bagels," she called.

Ezra appeared from the bathroom wearing a robe, brown hair flat and shiny, as if he had just showered. Aria dropped everything onto the butcher block surface of the island and continued, "I also brought muffins, cheese pastries, blueberry scones and, uh, here! Cinnamon buns," she exclaimed, reaching for the last bag she momentarily lost track of. "I think I cleaned them out."

"Smells good," he said walking into the kitchen and hugging her from behind.

Aria turned around and rose to his kiss, and standing on her toes and placing her arms around his neck, she caught the aroma of spicy sage and rose water. "Mmm, so do you. Is that the aftershave I bought you?"

"Sure is," he responded, motioning for another kiss, but Aria had already removed her arms from his neck. She gave him one quick peck then turned around to open the refrigerator. Nothing much in there, as usual.

"What's all this for? Trying to load me up on sugar and carbs, lull me into a stupor, then make your move?" Ezra looked up smiling, waiting for the real explanation. There was enough food there to feed everyone on the third floor.

"Yes," she admitted. He chuckled, then realized she wasn't laughing. "Why don't we sit down?"

"Okay…" he said curiously.

They walked the few steps it took to get to the living room and Ezra sat on the sofa. Aria sat down next to him then stood up again. "No, you sit here," she said, touching the armchair. He complied, intrigued. She sat on the coffee table directly in front of him, clasping her hands, then stood up again. "No, no good. Up," she commanded. Ezra stood and watched while Aria pushed the coffee table out of the way and pulled the armchair in close, facing the couch. "Sit," she commanded once again, and once again he complied, now dying to know what this was all about. Ariasat directly in front of him and clasped his hands in hers. Staring directly into his eyes, she took a deep breath and, pushing away all of her nervousness, said, "I may be pregnant."

"Pregnant," he repeated the word as if he'd never heard it before.

"Yes."

"Huh."

She waited for more, biting her bottom lip.

"May be," he repeated another part of her sentence.

"May be!" she agreed enthusiastically. "May be. I don't know."

Ezra took a second to process this. "Well, why do you think you may be?" _Pregnant._

"I'm late," Aria stated matter-of-factly.

"How long?"

"A week."

"And that's not.. nor-mal," he said, phrasing the question like a statement. He still held her hands and moved them up and down for each syllable of "normal."

"No. Not normal."

"Anything else?"

"I felt sort of dizzy the other day," Aria answered honestly, "but I think it's nothing. That's when it actually occurred to me…" She didn't finish her sentence, unsure how he would react to the fact she didn't tell him right away.

Ezra was in too much of a daze to even notice or care. "I thought we were really careful."

"We are!" She agreed again, changing his past tense verb to the present tense intentionally. "We definitely are." Aria extricated her hands from his, placed them on her lap and leaned forward, nervously tapping her foot. "Soo careful," still enthusiastic about this positive detail. Aria continued looking in his eyes, trying to read his face.

"Okay. Okay. We can deal with this," Ezra said, finally collecting his thoughts. He grabbed her hands back. "If you want to have the baby, we can do that. And if you want to keep the baby, we can do that too. I'll help," he said, like the thought was still forming in his mind as he was saying it aloud, "I'll get a better apartment. This one's no good. I'll get rid of all this crap," one hand gesturing around the room. Ezra paused, realizing he was getting off track. "And if you don't want to have the baby, we can do that too. I'll-"

Aria stopped him. "I would want to have it. And keep it," she said, as if she'd already given it some thought.

"Okay. Okay," he said like it was a fully formed plan. "Whatever you want to do is what I want to do. I'm not going anywhere."

She couldn't hold back the smile. His eyes twinkled back, but couldn't erase the general dumbstruck look about his face.

Aria blinked and took a breath. "We're getting ahead of ourselves here," she said, bringing them back to the present moment. "I haven't even taken a test yet. I bought one." She turned around to look at the bags in the kitchen.

"You should take it," he said, again like it was a brilliant plan he just came up with.

"I should take it," she replied, matching his tone of voice. "Okay." She stood up. "Give me a minute then." Aria walked away and tried not to look back, worried the expression on his face might have changed. But she couldn't help but glance back when she slipped into the bathroom. He remained seated in the leather armchair positioned so strangely in the living room, gazing into space, bobbing his head a little, holding the same expression he had moments ago. And she loved him for it.

When Aria returned, he stood anticipatorily. "It takes a minute," she informed him, placing the test on the table. Ezra nodded. They sat together on the sofa and he held her in his arms. "What are you thinking?" she asked earnestly.

Holding her close in this very uncertain moment, he replied, "I'm thinking… your father's going to kill me."

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[Ahhh what do you guys think is gonna happen? Please review! :) ]


	7. Chapter 7

Hanna sat before her vanity mirror with her blonde wavy hair pulled back, wearing a silver satin robe. She tapped her makeup brush on the edge of the cylinder and started applying the sheer powder to her face.

"Hanna?" she heard her mother call. "Do you have something you need to tell me?" Hanna froze. Ashley appeared in the doorway.

There were many things her mother could be referring to. In fact, it might be a fishing expedition._ The smartest thing to do is to play dumb_, Hanna thought. She did it all the time.

"No. I don't think so," Hanna answered sweetly, sweeping the brush across her nose.

"Are you sure?" Ashley sounded serious.

"I'm sure," Hanna said. _That's my story and I'm sticking to it._ She was mildly concerned this conversation was the direct result of A. A had been tormenting Hanna and her friends for months, and due for a new dirty trick. Though it was entirely possible A had nothing to do with it. Maybe Ashley found the bottles of lotion Hanna had stolen from the mall. Or maybe Hanna finished her mom's last diet coke. It could be anything!

"I went shopping this morning. I was just restocking the cabinet under the bathroom sink. I went to put a new box of tampons under there, only the old box was still there. Unopened," she added.

"So?" Hanna asked.

"So you didn't need any this month?" her mother pressed.

Hanna stopped what she was doing and thought back. She started silently counting on her fingers then gasped, "You think I'm pregnant? No. No way!"

"Hanna, I thought I taught you better than this."

"You did. There's no way," she repeated. No possible way.

"You take your pill every day? At the same time every day?"

"Yes." _Usually._

"You make him use a condom every time?"

"I don't have to make him, he just does. We're not stupid," Hanna replied candidly.

"It doesn't matter. It just takes one time. One time, Hanna," Ashley responded sternly.

"I'm telling you we are careful. Always," she reassured.

"There's only one way to find out. You're taking a pregnancy test. Right now," Ashley declared. "I never thought I'd have to say that to my 16-year old daughter. Or at least hoped."

"Come on, you're serious? Right now?"

"Oh, I'm serious." Dead serious. "Come with me."

"What you have one already?"

"As a matter of fact, I do."

Hanna stood up. "Why?"

"It never hurts to have one on hand. For moments such as these." Ashley led her to the master bathroom and dug into the middle drawer. She retrieved a small purple box and handed it to Hanna. "Do you know how to use it?"

Hanna raised the box to eye level, flipping it around to find the flap. "Pee on the stick. It's not rocket science. Shouldn't I call Caleb?"

"You can call him when you know one way or the other," Ashley said as she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Hanna took the test then sat on the edge of the tub waiting for the result to appear. She could hear her mom pacing outside the bathroom door. "Anything yet?" Ashley asked anxiously, envisioning her daughter, and Caleb, and a screaming infant all living under her roof, depleting her entire paycheck.

Hanna leaned forward and peered over at the sink. "Nothing yet," she reported.

5 seconds passed. "Now anything?" Ashley called through the door.

Hanna stood and picked up the stick, bringing it close to try and read the little window. "It's fuzzy."

"Plus or minus, Hanna?" Ashley said, unjoking.

She squinted her eyes. "Minus. Definitely minus."

Ashley burst in the door and caught her daughter up in a hug. "Oh thank god!" Ashley exclaimed, relieved. She looked at her daughter seriously, holding her by the shoulders. "You do know you dodged a bullet there, right?"

"Yeah. For a minute there, I thought I was gonna get fat again."

"Getting fat would be the least of your problems." Ashley released her daughter. "You're not taking this seriously."

"Sure I am. Dodged a bullet. Got it. Can I go now? I'm supposed to hang out at Aria's today."

Ashley took the test out of Hanna's hand and double checked the results. Satisfied her daughter's life wasn't headed down the drain, for the moment at least, she pronounced, "You may go."

Hanna immediately took advantage of her liberation and left, striding down the hall purposefully. When she got back to her bedroom, she shut the door and leaned up against it, breathing a big sigh of relief.


	8. Chapter 8

[Don't get too attached to this chapter. I decided to take the story in a different direction, so consider this a deleted scene. It never happened.]

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Aria sat up in bed with magazines on her lap. She ran her finger back and forth along the edge of a page and seemed particularly absorbed by the design of her comforter. Emily sat cross-legged on the bench at the foot of her bed, and Spencer took the window seat. Both seemed deep in thought and stared off into space, Spencer absent-mindedly spinning her phone around in her hand.

Hanna strode into the room and pulled the desk chair to face the other girls. She slung her handbag over the back and plopped down. She looked around at the others one by one, wondering when her presence might be acknowledged. Spencer yawned. Deciding to break the silence, Hanna said, "So guess what? I took a pregnancy test this morning." _That ought to get the conversation started_, she thought.

"What?" they all said in unison, snapped out of their daydreams.

"It was a seriously bizarre morning," she said. "Don't worry. It was negative. I won't be losing this incredible figure anytime soon," she reassured.

"How did Caleb react?" Emily asked.

"He doesn't know anything about it! It was negative. Why would I tell him?"

No one spoke.

"You guys look so serious. Did you not hear the part about it being negative?"

Aria spoke up. "No, I did."

"So why do you look so stunned?" Hanna asked.

"Because so did I."

"So did you what?"

"I also took a pregnancy test this morning."

"What?" Hanna and Emily asked, surprised.

"Me too," Spencer piped in. The girls all turned toward Spencer. "Well, not this morning. Last night," she corrected, then pondered, "What are the odds?"

Emily gaped at Spencer.

"Well what did it say?" Hanna demanded.

"Negative," Spencer responded.

Hanna whipped around to Aria.

"Also negative," she offered.

"Wow," Hanna said, leaning back in the chair. "Omigod, what did Ezra say?"

Aria grinned a little bit. "He practically proposed. I think he would have if it turned out the other way." She stared at her comforter again, dreamily.

Hanna smiled genuinely, while Spencer forced one.

Emily asked Spencer, "What did Toby say?"

Spencer shook her head, slowly answering, "Not Toby…"

Aria looked up. Hanna repositioned herself once again. "Who then?" she asked, intrigued.

"Wren," Spencer said sheepishly. "We've been seeing each other about a month."

Hanna's eyes widened. "A month!"

Spencer nodded.

"And you didn't say anything?

Spencer shrugged.

"Did you tell him? How did he react?"

"Well, he sure as hell didn't propose."

"That bad?"

Spencer exhaled. "His exact words were 'I can't be the guy who knocked up his ex-fiancée's teenaged sister'."

"I'm sorry, Spence," Aria offered.

"Jerk," Hanna threw in.

"I texted him this morning it was a false alarm. Let him stew overnight."

"Right on," Hanna said. "What did he say?"

"Hasn't said anything yet. He's probably trying to come up with something to make up for what he said last night. Or he's not thinking about it at all. Either way, I think we're over. All I could think about last night was what if it was Toby? I can't imagine him ever saying anything like that to me. Or not being completely supportive. I think I gave in too quickly breaking up with him. I've been feeling massive amounts of guilt ever since."

"You didn't exactly have a choice," Aria reminded Spencer.

"You always have a choice. He said that to me once. I think I should call him. See if I can fix things."

Aria and Hanna nodded tentatively, both wondering what A might do, but neither willing to say it out loud.

"Emily, do you think he'd take my call? How's he been?"

Emily started. She thought for a moment they all might know. Her eyes darted around to each of them, then settled on Spencer's shoes. "He's fine, I think. We never talked about it," she answered honestly.

There was silence again. They all lapsed into their respective daydreams, until Hanna asked, "So really, what are the odds of this happening all at once?

Spencer's eyes widened, remembering her thoughts from earlier. "Not very likely at all, I'd say."

"Do you…" Aria started to ask. "Do you think A messed with our birth control?"

"Would A really do that?" Hanna asked.

"What wouldn't A do?" Spencer answered. "A has messed with our lives in so many ways already."

"But this…" Aria said. "This is like a whole new level."

They all contemplated this for a moment. Then Spencer jumped up.

"Where are you going?" Aria asked.

"To fill a new prescription!"

"Good idea," Hanna said, gathering her purse and moving the chair back where it belonged.

"I'll call you guys later," Spencer said, as she and Hanna exited the room.

"Okay," Aria said, but they were already half-way down the stairs. "I can't believe this," echoed through the hallway, then muffled voices. The front door slammed.

"Aren't you going to do the same?" Emily asked.

'Uh, yeah," Aria said, as if there were any other option. "I'll call it in."

A few moments passed, both girls clearly absorbed in their own thoughts. Emily looked at Aria. "Aria?"

Aria looked up.

"I'm not on birth control.." Emily said.

"Yeah, why would you be, Em?"

Emily looked down.

"Wait, what? Are you sleeping with someone?"

The look on Emily's face answered the question.

"Who? Since when?"

Emily wasn't ready to admit the truth and complicate matters further. "A boy from church," she lied. "It's over. He went back to his old girlfriend." Emily winced while saying these words, knowing they would be truth in a matter of days… or hours.

Aria saw how hurt she looked. "I'm sorry, Em. Why didn't you tell any of us?"

"I wasn't sure how I felt. I didn't know what to say."

"You can always talk to us. That's what we're here for," Aria offered, sympathetically.

"I know," Emily answered, automatically.

"So what are you saying? Are you late too?"

"Maybe. My cycle's not regular depending on how hard I'm training, how stressed out I am. I didn't think anything of it until listening to the rest of you."

"Did you use…"

"Of course. I'm not an idiot," Emily said, defensively.

"I wasn't suggesting you were," Aria responded. "It's a valid question."

"I know," Emily said, sheepishly. "What am I gonna do?" Emily asked, in a panicked tone of voice. "You've met my parents…," she said, with her forehead in her hands. "This isn't happening…"

"Stop freaking out, Em," Aria said, moving across the bed to comfort her friend. "You said yourself it could be nothing. You've definitely been stressed out, we all have, though the past few weeks have been surprisingly…" She didn't know what word to use to finish the sentence. A had still been hassling them, but nothing they hadn't dealt with before. It was obviously the calm before the storm. "Look, I still have another test. I bought two just in case. Take it. Then we'll know and we can come up with a plan."

Emily straightened up and took a breath. "Okay."

* * *

[I don't know how to end this one. Emily was gonna be pregnant, it would cause drama, I don't know where to take it, so alternate reality…]


	9. Chapter 9

[Don't forget, the previous scene never happened. This picks up where Chapter 6 left off.]

* * *

Holding her close in this very uncertain moment, he replied, "I'm thinking… your father's going to kill me."

"He will not," Aria said, grinning. "If anything, it's my mom you have to worry about." Byron Montgomery's bark was worse than his bite. Ella Montgomery's on the other hand...

"I hadn't even thought of that. We are so screwed." Ezra was suddenly afraid of what all 5' 2" of Ella Montgomery would do to him when she found out he'd not only been with her daughter, but possibly impregnated her. He hoped no sharp objects would be around when they told her.

"One thing at a time. Should we look?"

"Yes. Just wait one second though." He cupped his hands around her cheeks and looked her in the eyes. There was this _light_ in them and he thought she had never looked more beautiful. "I meant what I said. Whichever way it goes, I'm not going anywhere."

She felt that prickly feeling in her eyes when tears are beginning to well. Not wanting him to see, she closed her eyes and kissed him, pulling his hands down to her lap. A tear ran down her cheek anyway. She wiped it away as she turned to reach the plastic thing on the table which would determine their fate.

They both watched her hands carefully flip it over and stared for a whole 5 seconds before Aria spoke. "It's… positive."

"Wow," Ezra said, running a palm over the top of his damp hair, stunned. "This is big." How big, he could not quite yet comprehend.

"Do you want to take back that promise?" Aria teased, knowing deep down she feared exactly that.

"Of course not," he said, finally looking at her again. He could never walk away. The thought was unimaginable.

Another tear flowed down the same path as the other one and this time he saw. A swipe of his thumb cleared it from her cheek. "I love you."

He pulled her to his chest and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, holding her wrist with the other hand. He kissed her temple over the mass of chestnut hair, then took a breath and rested his cheek there, and in this manner they sat in silence for the next few minutes. A million thoughts flooded their minds. Aria had had a few days to think already, but now, knowing for sure... she felt scared, and thrilled, and worried, and excited, and amazed, and overwhelmed, and shocked, and over-the-moon happy. Though Ezra hadn't had nearly as much time to process, he was feeling the same things, and on top of that sorry and responsible. It felt like a good thing and a bad thing all at the same time, like he had let her down somehow.

This time Ezra was the first to speak. "We should be practical about this. These tests aren't 100% accurate. Not that I don't believe it, but you should see a doctor. To confirm it."

Aria nodded. That's smart. That's practical, she thought.

"I can probably get a referral, get you on my insurance. I don't know exactly how it works, but I can find out," he offered.

"No, it's okay," Aria said, sitting upright on the couch now. "I have a doctor. She knows me. She'll be discreet."

Nodding, he asked, "So you won't be telling your parents?"

"No, not yet," she said, standing. Walking towards the kitchen, she continued, "They don't know about us yet. I can't spring both of these things on them at once."

"Good," he said, relieved. She fished around in her purse for her cell phone, not wasting any time taking his advice. "Not that we can keep it a secret forever. We should have a game plan."

Aria didn't waste any time dialing the number of the doctor's office. One hand held the phone to her ear while she held a finger up, a gesture for quiet.

Into the receiver, she said, "Yes, I'd like to make an appointment please. Do you have an opening Monday? 11 30."

Ezra shook his hands at her and whispered, "11 30's no good."

"Actually, hold on," she said to the receptionist and covered the mouthpiece with her fingers. "Why not? I can go during lunch," _when no one will miss me._

"I have class at 11 30," he told her as he stood.

"You want to come?"

"Of course. Make it for the afternoon, after school. I'll pick you up."

Aria moved her hand away and spoke to the receptionist again. "Do you have an opening for 3?" Aria asked. "… Okay, great. Aria Montgomery. … Yes, I've been there before. … Yes. … Thank you." She put the phone back in her purse. "I made it for 3."

Ezra met her by the island. "Good. Why did you think I wouldn't want to come?"

"I don't know. I thought you might find the idea of tagging along with me to the OB/GYN a little outside your comfort zone."

Ezra stuck his hands in the pockets of his robe and rocked on his heels. "Seems like I'm going to have to adjust the boundaries of my comfort zone then. You're not going through any of this alone."

It made her feel good to hear those words even though what lay ahead was still so abstract to her.

"Is this really happening?" he asked.

"I think it is…" Aria stepped forward and hugged him. Nothing had changed. She still felt as secure in his arms as she ever did. Her thoughts drifted to the future, past all the hard stuff they would have to get through in the coming months, past high school, past all of it, to a place where they were happy and together with an addition to their family she couldn't quite see clearly yet. Without fully realizing the words were coming out of her mouth, she said, "This kind of ties us together for life, you know."

She tensed up, momentarily frozen with fear. He continued rocking her and rubbing her back. Without any hesitation, he said, "There isn't anyone in the world I'd rather be tied to."


	10. Chapter 10

Monday afternoon, Aria and Ezra sat in the waiting room of the doctor's office. She flipped through a magazine while he looked around the medium-sized room. The sun shone through the vertical blinds over the window, casting a striped pattern over the empty seats along the other wall. As his eyes traveled around, he saw a very pregnant woman with a child about 3 at her feet playing with blocks, and a mother and daughter, a young girl about 13, sitting nearby. Then he looked at Aria flipping casually through that parenting magazine, wondering how she could seem so comfortable when he felt so incredibly uncomfortable in this place.

"Montgomery?" a woman called and they both turned their attention toward the nurse with the clipboard. Aria caught her eyeline, and they both stood up, and followed her down the hall to a small room. The nurse asked a bunch of questions and drew blood and left them alone while the test was run. Ezra paced around the room while Aria stared off into space. He felt very out of place in this sterile environment, surrounded by fetal development growth charts and illustrations of the female anatomy.

Eventually Aria made a slight adjustment and the paper covering she was sitting on crunched underneath her. The noise, the only sound created in the room in several minutes, prompted Ezra to ask, "How is it that you're so calm about this?"

"Calm? Are you kidding?" she sputtered, searching his face, realizing, no, he's not kidding. "Maybe on the outside. On the inside - not calm. My mind is all over the place. Do I really seem calm?"

"Yes," he stepped toward her, grabbing her hands, about to tell her everything he was thinking, how bizarre it felt to be there, and how it was blowing his mind that a very tiny person, the size of the bean drawn on that poster over there, was actually inside her, when they were interrupted by the doctor.

"Hi, Aria, how are you?"

Ezra stepped aside, not wanting to get in the way. "I'm fine, Dr. Clark, how are you?"

"Not bad, not bad," the middle-aged woman in the white coat replied looking down at a clipboard. When she looked up, she spotted Ezra standing in the corner. "Hi, I'm Felicia Clark," she said, holding out her hand.

He stepped forward to shake her hand. "Ezra, nice to meet you."

She smiled politely and pulled up a chair. "Well, Aria. It looks like you are pregnant."

Aria reached for Ezra's hand and squeezed it.

The doctor talked to them for a while, then asked Ezra to step out. He obliged, kissing Aria's forehead before exiting.

Dr. Clark swiveled her chair back in Aria's direction. "So Aria, I just wanted to talk to you about your options. Having a baby at any age is life-changing; it's especially hard at 16. Have you given this a lot of thought?"

"I have. I know what my options are, and I've decided I want to keep the baby."

"Understood. I don't mean to overstep, but I've known you a while, I don't think you'll take it the wrong way when I say I can tell he is a bit older than you. Is this relationship something you want? Has he pressured you in any way?"

"No, never," Aria shook her head. "I know we're a little unconventional, but he has been amazing. You don't have to worry about me."

"Good to know," the doctor said, and began to pull a small pad from her coat pocket.

"Dr. Clark? You… won't mention this visit to my mother, will you?" All she needed was Dr. Clark or one of the nurses congratulating her mother on becoming a grandmother at her next appointment. That was definitely not part of the plan. "We haven't told her about this yet, I need time-"

"This visit is strictly confidential," she reassured. "I won't, and legally can't, tell anyone anything without your consent."

"Ok, good." Aria took a breath. "Thank you."

"I'm writing you a prescription for pre-natal vitamins. If you have any questions, the nurse will be in shortly, and make sure you make a follow-up appointment for your first ultrasound before you leave."

Yes, Aria had questions. Dozens of them.

The doctor stood and said, "Oh, and Aria? Congratulations," before exiting.

Aria smiled weakly.

Ezra, who had been waiting in the hall because he didn't know what else to do, came back inside, and Aria, gripping the edges of the exam table she sat upon, said, "This just got really real."

.

On the car ride home, Aria tapped her foot nervously while Ezra repeatedly drummed his fingertips on the steering wheel. He glanced over at her and asked, "Are you freaking out?"

"Why, are you?"

"No," he lied.

She let out a deep breath, glad he was taking all of this alright. "Okay, I might be freaking out a little bit," she admitted. "Are you sure you're not?"

Ezra came clean. "Oh, I'm definitely freaking out."

Aria shot her head in his direction. "Why did you say you weren't?"

"Because you clearly are and we can't both freak out at the same time. We can take turns. You were calm all day, so it's your turn to freak out." The solution sounded quite reasonable to him. He was proud of himself for thinking of it.

"It's freaking me out how many times we just said freaking out."

"Okay. New rule. No one says 'freaking out,'" Ezra proposed. "The phrase is now banned from our vocabulary." Aria nodded in agreement, biting the inside of her lip. "I'll be the rational one for now. Tell me what you want to do. Right now. Do you want to go to my place? Go home? Get something to eat? Keep driving 'til we hit the border? Your choice."

"You want to raise this kid in Canada?"

"Or Mexico," he suggested. "Weather's a little nicer there."

"I can't believe you're making jokes."

"You started it!"

"Did I?" she asked skeptically.

"I don't know. I don't remember!"

"I thought it was _my_ turn to freak out," Aria reminded him. "You're not holding up your end of the deal."

"I'm sorry." Ezra held back the urge to remind her that phrase had been banned. Instead, he took his right hand off the wheel and brought it down, fingertips touching, in front of his face, composing himself. "Zen. See?"

She looked back over at him. His eyes were set straight ahead and his face showed no emotion whatsoever.

"So what do you want to do?" he asked calmly. He needed to know what direction to drive in.

"Takeout? We can stop at Rose of Sha-"

"You've _got_ to be kidding me." He threw his head back when he said this.

"What?" Aria pinched her eyebrows together. "What'd I say? I thought we loved that place."

"No. The song," he clarified, motioning his chin in the direction of the radio dial. Of all the songs that could have been playing right now, it had to be the one that basically paralleled their relationship, right down to his warm, dry car which saved her from the sudden rainstorm. They'd gotten through how many month together without ever hearing it, and then it played at this moment, this life-defining moment. The universe had to be playing a joke on them.

These lyrics trickled out of the speakers.

.

_Young teacher, the subject / Of schoolgirl fantasy_

.

Aria started to laugh, slow at first, little snorts almost. Then she covered her face, inhaling little breaths, barely making any sound. Ezra looked at her crazily, then turned his attention back to the road, then back at her. He couldn't help it and burst out laughing as well.

.

_Don't stand, don't stand so / Don't stand so close to me_

.

"This is ridiculous!" Ezra declared through convulsions.

"I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" She was doubled over in laughter, one hand still pressed against her face.

The car rolled to a stop at a stop sign.

"This is nuts!" he cried. "We're crazy, you know that right?"

* * *

[In case you don't know the song, it is Don't Stand So Close To Me by The Police. Check my profile for a link. ]


	11. Chapter 11

I accidentally published this chapter out of order, so go back and read 11 if you missed it.

* * *

Ezra picked up his phone and tentatively dialed a number from a piece of paper.

Spencer sat in her room, studying, as was usually the case. Her eyes raked down the textbook page full of study questions as she began to neatly inscribe the numbers 1 through 10 down the margin of her notebook when her cell phone buzzed on the desk beside her. She didn't recognize the number, but answered anyway. It wasn't strange phone calls she had to be afraid of; only texts. "Hello?"

"Hi, Spencer? This is Ezra… Fitz."

Upon hearing his voice, Spencer instinctively straightened up in her chair. "Hi. Um, is something wrong?" she asked, worried. She couldn't think of a single good reason he would call her for, only bad ones, and worse ones.

"No, no, everything is fine," Ezra said, and Spencer relaxed slightly. "I know it's strange for me to be calling you, I wanted your opinion on something…" he got straight to the point, "a gift… for Aria."

"Oh," she said, surprised.

"Obviously, you know about us, and you're one of Aria's best friends, and, well, I wanted to get her something special, but her taste is a bit…" He trailed off, thinking he should have thought of a way to finish that sentence before starting it.

"Eclectic?" It was nicer than 'out there.'

"That's a good word for it. See? You're helping already," he chuckled. "I wouldn't want to get her something she would have to pretend to like, and I'm sure I would get the wrong thing."

"I can help," Spencer declared confidently. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I want to get her a ring," Ezra said, and knew exactly how it sounded.

"A ring?" Visions of diamond engagement rings flashed through her mind.

"_Just_ a ring. I thought of getting her a bracelet or something, but I think I'd like to get her a ring." A ring seemed more special than any other type of jewelry.

"Okay, wow, great." Spencer had a little trouble believing this conversation was really taking place. She'd known about Aria and Mr. Fitz, er, Ezra for quite a while now, but she had never interacted with him in this way, if you don't count the time she surprised him in his car to tell him she was worried about Aria. Even that exchange felt slightly less awkward than this silence right now.

Ezra cleared his throat, reminding Spencer it was still her turn to talk. "Well, I'm sure we can find something she'll like. Do you want to meet me at the jewelry store on Main Street? Tomorrow, say 4?"

"Sure. Great. Thanks for your help."

"No problem, Mr. Fitz."

Ezra wanted to say she could call him Ezra, but she'd already hung up.

In her room, Spencer mouthed, "_Mr. Fitz?_" It was a habit she would probably have to break soon.

.

The next day, Spencer stood outside the jewelry store waiting for Mr. Fitz. _Ezra. Ezra,_ she reminded herself. Punctuality was Spencer's middle name, so naturally she had arrived 5 minutes earlier than the agreed-upon time, and took cover in the shadow of the awning in case Aria made a pit stop at Lucky Leon's, which was right across the way and a frequent haunt of the petite java-junkie. Spencer was all fired up to pick out this ring for her friend, determined to find something she would love, and was a little more excited than she should have been about keeping this secret from her for the time being. She hadn't let on in the slightest that she had spoken to her boyfriend, or that she had an appointment to meet him that afternoon.

At 4 on the dot, she saw Ezra's silver car pull up and park across the street. He hopped out and crossed behind a passing car, then said, "Hi, Spencer."

"Hi…" _Ezra. Say Ezra!_ she told herself, but couldn't manage to get the word out.

"Ezra, you can call me Ezra. Not your teacher anymore."

"Ezra," Spencer repeated, awkwardly.

Hands in his pockets, he leaned in slightly and asked, "Can we just pretend this isn't weird?"

"We can try," she said, and smiled.

Ezra held the door open for Spencer to step through and heard the bell overhead jingle as the door closed behind him. The salesman greeted them and offered his help, but they declined, citing they were just there to look around. And so they did.

The first case contained an array of sparkly engagement rings. Spencer paused and raised an eyebrow.

"No, no, no, let's look in this case over here," Ezra said, pointing to the next glass case.

She followed him around the store, shooting down every suggestion he made. Eventually she thanked the salesman and said, "There's nothing here. Let's go."

"Wait, not even the bird one?" They had spent a few minutes sizing up the peacock-shaped ring with multicolored stones in the corner display. Aria sure liked feathers, he thought, it was probably a good bet she would like that ring.

"Do you have ten thousand dollars?"

"Uhh-"

"Because that ring costs twice that, at least." Those multicolored stones happened to be emeralds, sapphires and diamonds, and the silver finish, 24karat white gold. Ezra was so out of his league in a place like this. Spencer turned on her heel and vanished out the door. Ezra followed her outside, giving the salesman an apologetic look.

"There is nothing she would like in that entire store?" he asked Spencer, thinking they had given up far too soon.

"No, this was a bad idea on my part," she disclosed. "Everything in there is too new. Too… shiny. Aria would want something from a vintage shop, something previously owned by some old woman who gave up a glamorous lifestyle to adopt 14 cats."

"That does sound like her," Ezra laughed.

"Well, it's true. I think your best bet for something like that would be a shop in the city, but I have an even better idea. There's this website she shops on all the time, full of independent designers, every one with their own unique style. I'll search it tonight, compile some options and send you the links for you to narrow down. Most people do custom work, so once you get an idea of what you want, you can have someone make it from scratch. I'm sure she'll love it."

"That sounds like a great idea," Ezra said, impressed by the plan.

Spencer reached into her bag for a notebook and a pen. "Here, give me your email address," she said, handing him both items.

He jotted it down and handed it back, dropping the pen in the process, and they both stooped down to pick it up. He grabbed it first, rose, and handed it to her with an awkward smile, then he stuck his hands in his pockets and thanked Spencer once again before heading back to his car.

.

Ella Montgomery, after picking up Thai takeout for dinner, got into her car parked on the corner of Main Street. The sight of a former colleague and a current student talking and laughing outside a jewelry store caught her attention.

* * *

[The website Spencer is referring to is Etsy. ]


	12. Chapter 12

(Part 1 of 3)

A few nights later, Aria came downstairs from her room and offered to help her mother prepare dinner for the family. She sat at the counter and chopped vegetables while her mother peeled potatoes. They chatted a bit, then worked in silence until Aria finally said, "So, mom, I was wondering if we could have someone over for dinner tomorrow night."

"Sure, honey," her mom agreed without pause. "Who?"

"A friend…" she said. "A guy friend I've been seeing for a while…"

"A guy friend? You mean your _boy_friend?" Ella asked in a teasing voice. She had a feeling Aria was seeing someone. The confirmation was nice so she didn't have to feel nosy by asking.

"Yes, mom, he's my _boy_friend," Aria said, mimicking her tone of voice. "I want to have him over for dinner so you and dad can get to know him."

"That's sweet. Of course he can come over."

_Step 1 complete, _she thought. Aria smiled, hoping it looked genuine, and finished chopping the last of the carrots.

Ella pulled the pork chops from the oven and Aria's nose twisted up. "I'm gonna get back to my homework," Aria said as she headed quickly back upstairs before Ella could guess why. She had the forethought to shut the bathroom door and turn on the faucet before throwing up into the toilet. _This could be a problem, _she thought.

.

The next evening, Aria helped Ella prepare dinner again, Italian food this time.

"Does this boy have a name?" Ella asked while she fixed a salad.

"Yes. Yes, he does," Aria answered distractedly, tapping her foot on the leg of the chair, and eyeing the clock on the wall.

Ella watched her, waiting for an answer that never came. She thought it was cute how nervous Aria was, bringing a boy home for dinner for the first time. Aria had had boyfriends over before when they had lived in Iceland, but this was obviously different.

The doorbell rang. Aria jumped out of her chair at the sound, but Ella was already halfway to the front door. She pulled the door open prepared to give this boy a big hello, but instead she saw Ezra Fitz standing there with a bunch of flowers in his hand. "Ezra?" Ella asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh…" Ezra's eyes grew wide and searched Aria's for the answer.

Aria stepped past her mother and linked arms with Ezra. "He's here for dinner."

Ella looked down at her daughter's arm, intertwined with that of her former English teacher, then at Aria, then at Ezra, then back down at their arms. "Is this a joke?" she asked, clearly hoping the answer was yes, but sensing it was not.

Under his breath, Ezra said, "You didn't tell her?" to Aria.

"I sorta told her," she answered, as she led Ezra into the living room. Ezra exchanged a sheepish glance with Ella whose face was like stone. Aria and Ezra sat down on the sofa, leaving Ella standing near the open door. She continued to process the scenario for a few moments, then shut the door and sat on the edge of the armchair opposite her daughter, irked by what seemed about to transpire.

Ezra spoke quickly. "Ella, I thought she told you, I didn't know I was walking into an ambush, I'm sorry." Lower, towards Aria, he questioned, "Why didn't you tell her?" He was under the impression Ella would have been prepped for his arrival.

Aria just smiled uneasily and placed the flowers on the coffee table.

"What was she supposed to tell me?" Ella finally asked.

Ezra cleared his throat. "That we've, uh, been seeing each other for, uh-"

"For how long?" Ella demanded angrily.

"For, uhh…" Ezra stumbled on his words. The answer was about 9 months, but Ezra was disinclined to say that particular number aloud, for multiple reasons.

"For about 2 months," Aria jumped in. Ezra turned to look at her, then back at Ella who was glaring at their connected hands.

"F-for about t-two months," Ezra repeated, trying to look Ella in the eye.

"Mom," Aria said, trying to get her attention. "After he left Rosewood High, I went to see him at Hollis. I was there to see dad, but he wasn't in his office, so I started walking around and I saw Ezra in his office." Ella flinched a tiny bit at her use of the word 'Ezra.' She had once encouraged her to call him Ezra… that was _less_ than 2 months ago. "I went in to say hi and we talked for a while. I went back a few times and eventually asked him out for coffee."

As Aria spoke, something else clicked in Ella's brain. Ezra had mentioned that _Aria_ had been the one to invite him to Ian Thomas' funeral. So she already knew Aria had seen and spoken to Ezra over the past few months, several times, and knew she'd had ample time to do so being on campus for her pottery class, but Ella had not considered this knowledge to be indicative of anything. She hadn't thought of it at all. Ella kept listening, wondering what else she didn't know she already knew.

Ezra looked sideways at Aria, nodding along, all the while wondering when she came up with this story.

"He always found an excuse to say no," she continued, "until I finally challenged him to deny we had a connection."

Ezra caught on and took over. "I agreed to go out for coffee, and she was right. We began developing real feelings for each other." He lifted Aria's hand, then set it back down, noticing Ella's eye twitch a bit. "We both agreed the right thing to do would be to tell you and your husband since things are getting serious."

Ezra immediately regretted his choice of words.

"How serious?" Ella demanded.

Meeting her gaze, Ezra stated plainly, "I love her."

"She's 16," Ella countered.

"I know. I've struggled with that fact every day. She's 16, she was my student, but I swear I never looked at her that way until after." Ezra hoped Ella couldn't see through his lies. The first part was true enough. He did struggle with these facts since the very beginning, and continued to, now more than ever, but he wasn't sure he could pretend to not have loved her since day 1.

Ella turned to Aria, who was very pleased with how Ezra was handling himself. "Is this true? Nothing happened while he was your teacher?"

Aria answered, "No. Nothing," very convincingly.

Ella considered this for a moment. "Who were you dating in the fall?"

"What?" Aria asked, caught off guard.

"You sent me that text, I know you were seeing someone you didn't want me to know about." Something about 'looking into your eyes…' Ella now regretted giving her that free pass to keep it to herself, especially now faced with the possibility the mystery boy was her teacher. She had to hold back the wave of revulsion that swept through her at the thought. "Who was it?"

Thinking quickly, Aria replied, "Uh, well, I'm a little embarrassed," shifting uncomfortably. "You know Caleb? Hanna's boyfriend? I was sort of seeing him behind her back for a little while. But I ended it. She doesn't know."

Aria searched her mother's face to determine if she bought this story. She was pretty proud of herself for thinking of it, but couldn't let it show. She looked at Ezra and he looked back at her trying to get the expression just right. He hoped 'impressed and a little worried it might be true' would translate as 'hm, I didn't know this, but I'm okay with it.'

Ella was unconvinced. "There were rumors about you and a student back then. I've seen you with Spencer Hastings. Twice now."

Ezra didn't know how to respond to this, but words came spilling out anyway. "There is nothing going on with Spencer. I bumped into her on the street the other day and said hello. I promise you this is a.. unique situation. I-"

Before he could continue, Byron entered the room. "Hello, Ezra, what are you doing here?" he asked in a friendly tone, completely unaware what he was walking in on.

Ezra stood, as did Aria, right by his side.

"What's going on here?" he asked, concerned.

"By-, Mr. Montgomery, I-"

Ella spoke up as she got to her feet as well. "Apparently, they've been seeing each other. For the past 2 months." Aria was hugely relieved her mother had believed them.

"What?" His wife's words didn't make any sense to him.

Distracted by the thought she had earlier, Ella turned back to Ezra. "You accepted an invitation to our dinner party while you were involved with our daughter?"

"I, uh, the relationship was pretty new… I don't really know what to say…" _Say you're sorry._

"Relationship?" Byron asked, angrily, catching up quick.

"I shouldn't have, I apologize," Ezra said as Ella said, "We left you two alone in the house," thoroughly turned off by implication.

Aria jumped in, "No, Jason was here too, mom. Ezra helped with the dishes, then I sent them both home. That's it. I swear."

It didn't matter what her daughter had to say right now. Nothing could get the horrendous thoughts that kept popping up out of her mind. "I'm not comfortable with this. This isn't right," Ella said, shaking her head. She hoped any second she would wake up from this nightmare.

Ezra's face fell. They seemed to have had all the right answers so far.

Byron stepped forward. "You should leave."

Ezra looked to Aria. "Go. I'll talk to you later," she said, a bit sadly. She knew getting into a shouting match would not help their case.

Had her parents not been giving him death stares, Ezra would have kissed her goodbye. Aria let go of his hand and he walked toward the door, then paused and turned to say, "We really didn't mean to ambush you like this. We just didn't want to keep it a secret any longer." And with that, he left.

* * *

Please review! It means a lot to know you're enjoying this story.


	13. Chapter 13

(Part 2 of 3)

Nobody said a word, took a step, or even made eye contact for the next few seconds. They would have been able to hear Ezra's car door slam shut had the smoke detector not started beeping loudly. They all ran to the kitchen where dark smoke poured from the seams around the oven door. Ella grabbed an oven mitt and pulled out the lasagna, burned to a crisp.

"This is just great," Ella muttered, dropping it noisily onto the stovetop.

Aria started coughing when the smoke hit her. _No, not now_, she thought, feeling the stab of nausea in the pit of her stomach. She ran from the room in search of fresh air, flung open the front door and heaved over the side railing. _Please don't let them see. Not now. _Aria stumbled backwards, leaning on the siding and took a few deep breaths. This was _the worst_ possible time for her parents to find out about the baby. She wiped the perspiration from her forehead and went back into the house, opening every window in the living room, grateful her parents were too busy dealing with the smoke detectors to notice this little incident.

.

When the smoke cleared, Aria reappeared in the kitchen. "Should we order in?" she asked. The look her parents simultaneously shot her could have killed. _I guess this is not the time to be thinking about food…_

"That's quite the bomb you just dropped on us," Ella stated.

"I know. I'm sorry," Aria genuinely replied.

"Is everything you just said in there true? You pursued a relationship with your teacher? Why would you do that?"

"He wasn't my teacher anymore," she said. "We had so much in common, so much to talk about. I didn't want to pass up an opportunity for true love because it might look bad."

"This is ridiculous," Byron piped in. "Talking about true love. He's a grown man, Aria. You're a minor. It doesn't matter who initiated this. It's wrong."

"Why is it so wrong?"

Byron looked to Ella expecting her to list all the obvious reasons this "relationship" was wrong, but she didn't speak up.

Aria, taking advantage of this un-united front, said, "Please, just imagine for one minute that this is real, because I swear it is." _I swear, I swear, I swear,_ but Aria said no more. Any pleading would be seen as childish, and acting like an adult was vital to making her case.

Ella sighed and Byron looked at her in disbelief. Aria turned and walked up to her room, pausing on the stairs to listen and heard her parents downstairs arguing.

"We should call the cops," Byron said. "He can't get away with this. We invited him into our home. I treated him as a friend."

"We can't call the cops. Think about your daughter. Think about her reputation if this gets out."

"But what if he is doing this to other girls? We can't be responsible for that."

The thought had crossed her mind. "I did see him with Spencer Hastings the other day… but it doesn't necessarily mean..."

"How do you know?" he questioned. "We should let the authorities deal with this. It's an abuse of his power going after a teenaged girl like this."

"You weren't here for the part where they explained how it started," Ella told him. "I don't think it's fair to paint him in that light."

Confounded, he asked, "Why are you suddenly on his side? He's been doing god-knows-what with our daughter behind our backs and you're saying it is unfair to call him out on it?"

"No, I just think it's a bit hypocritical to talk about abuse of power when you are fully aware of what this family went through because of your 'indiscretion.'"

"It's not the same thing," Byron countered, weakly.

"No. It's not," she agreed. "I'm just trying to see this from their perspective. I don't want to overreact."

"I think you're under-reacting. She's our _daughter_. Our _little girl_. We're supposed to protect her from stuff like this."

"Let me find out if this is something she needs protection from. We have to let our children make their own mistakes," Ella referenced the parenting philosophy they had agreed upon years ago.

"I can't believe you're using that here. Now," Byron said incredulously. "We're not talking about letting her quit piano lessons when she was 10. This is serious."

"Let's take a step back and really think about what we're prepared to do. If we try to come between them, it may only serve to drive them closer together. Let me talk to Aria," she requested. "Let me figure out what she's thinking. We can deal with this tomorrow." Ella knew exactly where she would start.

Byron was speechless. He shook his head disagreeing with his wife so strongly, but knowing following her course of action was the right thing to do,_for now._ "I'm gonna go pick up something for dinner," Byron said in defeat, and left. He had half a mind to go find Ezra and have a few harsh words with the man, and shuddered replaying whole scene in his head. _2 months. _He had just spoken to Ezra not 2 weeks ago, joked around, talked about life, and made tentative plans to combine their classes one day next semester for a joint lesson. All the while he was somehow involved with Aria. _The lying bastard._ Byron decided he would allow Ella to get more information from Aria before taking any action.

Ella tried to clean up the kitchen, scraping the remnants of the lasagna into the trash. Eventually she gave up and sat at the counter with her head in her hands.

.

[Texts]

Ezra: That didn't go well.

Aria: It could have been worse.

Ezra: You could have told me the plan first.

Aria: It was better this way. Unrehearsed.

Ezra: Caleb?

Aria: Haha, yeah, gonna have to warn Hanna about that one.

Ezra: She knows?

Aria: Yes. :/

Ezra: It's okay. What else do your friends know?

Aria: Nothing else yet.

Ezra: Can you come over Wednesday? We should plan out the next part.

Aria: I'll try.

Ezra: Love you.

Aria: Love you too

.

(Part 3 of 3)

Aria sat in the middle of the floor of her bedroom folding laundry. Ella stood in the doorway and sighed, recounting the events of the evening.

"What did you expect to happen here today?" Ella asked as she sat on the floor next to her daughter.

"I don't know…"

"Did you expect me to actually sit down for a meal with this man 5 minutes after finding out you've been seeing each other for months? You thought your father would be okay with it?"

"I knew it would come as a shock. I didn't know how else to tell you," Aria said. "Neither of us felt right about keeping it a secret. It felt wrong keeping it from you, like we're doing something wrong, but we're not."

"Did you ever think that if it felt wrong, maybe it _is_ wrong?" her mother suggested, hoping to get through to her daughter.

"No, I said it felt wrong not telling you. From the first conversation we had outside school, it felt _right._"

"Aria," Ella said, "he's so much older than you. He has a job, he has an apartment, he has bills to pay. He's been through college and works as a teacher, he was _your_ teacher only a matter of months ago," trying to get Aria to understand.

"But he's not anymore. He's just this guy, this _great_ guy. Why does it matter he used to be my teacher?"

Ella sighed. "It matters. But what I was trying to say is he's an adult. And you're… not."

Aria responded to this argument by reminding her mom, "I'll be 17 next week. He is only 6 years older. It's not very much."

She remembered the moment just over one month ago when she stood in this same room and Aria asked if it would be so bad for Ezra and Spencer to get together, obviously testing the waters for this announcement. '_There's hardly any age difference_,' Aria had said. 'Hardly any' was subjective. "I think you're missing the point," Ella said. "Have you thought about _why_ he would want to be with someone your age? Do you not see why it's wrong? _Besides_ the age difference, he was your _teacher_. And like I said, it does matter."

"You make it sound like he's some predator," Aria said, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice. "He's not. It's not like that at all. _I _convinced _him_ to give us a chance, not the other way around. If you saw us together, you would see we are just like any other couple. I guess that's why I invited him over tonight," she finally explained.

Ella was silent. Her instincts told her Ezra was not the predator Byron would make him out to be, but her instincts were also telling her to protect her child from potential danger. Either way, all she saw right now was Aria getting hurt.

"You do like him, right? You see what I see in him?" Aria asked, knowing her mother thought very highly of him, until this afternoon, that is.

"I did like him, yes," she admitted. "Now I'm questioning everything I thought I knew about him."

"I get it. You need time to get used to the idea," Aria stated understandingly. She would have been surprised if her mother didn't question his character a little bit. "Why don't we try dinner again another day? I'll cook. You just show up with an open mind."

"Your father is not gonna go for that," Ella said, shaking her head.

"Can you try to make him understand?" Aria asked.

"How can I make him understand something _I_ don't understand?"

"Please? Just try," she requested.

"Aria, I don't know what to tell you. I need some time to think about this," Ella said, sighing again.

"Okay. That's all I'm asking," Aria said, satisfied with her response. Her mother hadn't imposed a ban on seeing him and hadn't shot down the idea of having him back over for dinner completely. Those were good things.

"Okay." Ella pushed off of her folded legs to stand and left Aria to finish the chore she had interrupted for this talk, which had left her undecided, but slightly less disoriented than before.

Aria could see her mom was making an effort and it was all she could really ask for at this point. She knew if they could get past this part, the next part wouldn't be so hard.


	14. Chapter 14

Aria turned up at Ezra's apartment on Wednesday like he'd asked. He opened the door with a dishtowel on his shoulder and a smile on his face.

"You're cooking?" she exclaimed, rushing past him into the kitchen.

"I'm trying," he said.

"It smells good!" A lot better than the first time he tried to make this dish on his own, she thought.

"You sound surprised."

"I am," she teased, then gave him a kiss. Then she sneezed, bringing her arm up to her face and turning away just in time.

"You have the cutest sneeze," he said with a smile and rubbed her nose with his own. It wasn't the first time he'd told her that. A few weeks ago, Aria had a mini sneezing marathon. The first time Ezra responded with, "Bless you," then "gesundheit," then when she kept sneezing, turned it into a challenge to remember the proper response in every language he could think of. Next came Italian, then Spanish, an attempt at Irish which he mis-remembered, then 3 different ones in French before he ran out. Aria attempted to teach him the customary Icelandic response to multiple sneezes, but kept getting interrupted by the perpetual sneezing. When she was finally done, 13 sneezes later, Ezra told her, "that was possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen." Even after Aria showed him a series of adorable kitten sneezing videos on YouTube, he stood by his original assertion.

Ezra took off her coat and hung it on the hook behind the door. "How are things at home?" he asked, returning to the kitchen. He hadn't heard any updates since yesterday.

"Um, not bad," she answered, while sampling the sauce on the stove. "My mom is sort of on our side, my dad, not so much. But they haven't given me any ultimatums or anything."

"They know you're here?" Ezra asked, while he finished plating up their meal.

"Well, no…I said I was going to Spencer's, which I did, then I came here. I think we've got a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy going."

"That's good, all things considered." Ezra was just glad Byron hadn't broken down the door to make any threats since their confession 2 nights ago.

"I know. I think it's all gonna work out," she said optimistically.

Ezra brought their plates of spaghetti and meatballs to the small kitchen table and they sat, opposite each other.

"So you wanted to come up with a game plan. I have an idea," Aria said. She'd already come up with the game plan about a week and a half ago, but wasn't ready to share it with him completely until after her parents knew they were dating. That was Phase I.

"Let's talk about it after dinner," he said. "I have something for you first."

He pulled a small flat box from his pocket and placed it on the table in front of her. She looked up at him, "What's this for?"

"You'll see. Open it."

She tugged on the ribbon and removed the lid. Atop a square of fluff was a small antique-gold colored ring. Three infinity symbols surrounded the band. She picked it up, staring at the detail, admiring its beauty.

Anxiously he asked, "Do you like it?"

"Yes. It's beautiful."

"I wanted to get you something special. Something to show you how much you mean to me." He reached across the table to hold her hands. "May I?" he asked brightly. Ezra took the ring and slipped it onto her finger, pleased it fit. "Look," he said, pointing. "The three infinity symbols represent you, me, and the baby."

Aria couldn't hold it in anymore. Hot tears streamed down her face and she started sobbing.

"What's wrong? I'm sorry," he apologized. "I didn't mean to upset you." While still holding her hands, he got out of his chair and moved to her side. This wasn't the reaction he was expecting.

Aria started shaking her head, but couldn't get any words out.

His words came pouring out. "Maybe this is too fast, it's too much. We don't have to do this now. You can change your mind. I would never fault you for it."

"I-is t-that what you w-want?" Aria asked through her tears. She was so overcome with happiness when he explained the significance of the ring, she couldn't help but cry. But he was misunderstanding her tears and Aria was terrified he had changed _his_ mind.

"What I want doesn't matter. I only care about what you want."

"W-what you want matters. It's y-your baby too," she said, stifling sobs.

"I _want_ this to be your decision. And I don't want to influence it with my opinion," he said.

"Well I'm asking f-for your opinion. Because it matters to me. If you don't want this baby-"

"No, I do!" If he hadn't cut her off, he would have realized she didn't have an end for that sentence. "I do want it. When you first told me you were pregnant, I was stunned.., but _thrilled_. There is so much about this that should terrify me, and does, but I'm also so happy about it, I can't begin describe it to you. I do want this baby. But there is part of me that thinks I'm ruining your life. And I would never hold it against you if you didn't want to go through with this."

"You're not ruining my life," she said, blinking away tears.

"If you're not ready for this.. we could do this in a few years. We could plan it." It was difficult for him to make this offer, even though he meant it 100 percent, because he was afraid she might take him up on it. Would they ever get over it? Would there ever cease to be a member missing from their family? Would they even make it that far with this part of their past weighing down on them? It hurt just to think about it. It's easy to support the option in the abstract, but when it's your own, it's suddenly the most difficult decision you've ever had to face. His mind was pulled in a dozen different directions seeing her cry at the sight of the ring. He didn't know she felt the exact same way. "I know it's not-"

"Noo, stop. I want _this_ baby. _This_ one." She pressed their clasped hands down into her lap and sucked in a quick breath through her nose as another tear streamed down her cheek.

"So do I," he said. "I know we talked about it. I know what you said, but you're allowed..." He took a breath. "You're allowed to have different feelings. Do you _really_ want this?" He searched her eyes, then looked away. "You don't have to answer now."

"Look at me," she said, sniffling again. He did. "I want this baby too. Soo much. There is _no_ _question_. I'm not crying because I changed my mind," she finally explained. "I'm crying because… I can't help it. This ring is beautiful," she said lifting their hands between them. "And I didn't know what you really felt about all this until right now."

She leaned down to kiss him, her face still wet with tears; he could taste them on her lips. One kiss turned into two, turned into three. He started to stand from his crouching position and leaned into her. She rose to her feet and pressed herself into him. They moved toward the kitchen, breathing deeply, until her back was against the refrigerator door. The happy tears still trickled down her face. His hands traveled to her hips, pulling down the zipper on the left side of her skirt. With her arms around his neck, she hopped up into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and never parting lips. He staggered to the bed, kicking off his shoes before falling backward onto it.

When Aria pulled her top over her head, like she'd done so many times before, Ezra asked, "Is this okay?" She nodded and began to lift his shirt as well. When his free hand instinctively reached over to the nightstand and pulled out a little foil wrapper, Aria took it and flicked it away. When she could tell he was holding back, treating her like she might break, she assured him, "You can't hurt us," giving him permission to express the full amount of passion he was feeling for her in that moment.

After, he held her in bed, one hand positioned on her chest to feel her heart beat. He watched her play with the ring on her finger, spinning it round and round with her thumb. With his cheek pressed to the back of her head, Ezra inhaled the exquisite scent of her hair and asked, "Would you have preferred that be an engagement ring?"

Aria considered this thoughtfully and rolled over to face him. "No," she answered truthfully. "One step at a time."


	15. Chapter 15

(Part 1 of 3)

On Friday, Aria came home after school and took a nap. While she slept, Mike had come back from lacrosse practice. She found him in his room and said, "I'm going to Ezra's for dinner." She hadn't spoken to Mike about this revelation, but assumed he had heard. "Since mom and dad are both working late, do you want to come?"

Mike looked up from his computer. "Ezra's?" he repeated with a patronizing tone. "Are you really dating your English teacher?"

"He's not my English teacher," she said.

"He was."

"What's your point?" she said with an accompanying glare.

"It's weird," he said, as if that weren't obvious already. "You want me to hang out with you guys? At Mr. Fitz's apartment?"

"Do you have anything better to do? Good luck finding anything in the fridge," Aria said smugly and turned around.

"Wait," Mike said, knowing she was right about the lack of food and rather curious about seeing a teacher in their natural habitat. "Fine, I'll come."

_That was too easy,_ Aria thought as he threw his laptop in his backpack and followed her down the stairs.

.

Aria knocked on Ezra's door and he answered, happy to see her. He was a little surprised to see Mike standing behind her, but didn't let it show.

"Hi," they both said and she gave him a quick kiss. Mike eyed him dubiously. "Hi, Mike," Ezra said, opening the door wider for him to come in.

"Hi… Mr. Fitz…"

"Ezra. You can call me Ezra," he said as he shut the door.

"Okay…" Mike said as he walked past Fitz.

"So what were you thinking for tonight?" Aria asked, opening a drawer in the kitchen and pulling out a stack of menus.

Mike sat down on the sofa and glanced around.

"I'm thinking Chinese," she said first, shuffling through the assortment of all shapes and sizes.

"Sounds good to me," Ezra said, as he sat down in the armchair, the furthest seat from Mike.

They both looked at Mike, waiting for him to weigh in.

"Uh, yeah, me too."

They both told her what they wanted and she placed the order over the phone. Then Aria put the menus back in the drawer and started opening and closing cabinets, looking for something. When she noticed them both sitting there, awkwardly not talking to each other, or doing anything, she suggested, "Why don't you guys turn on the TV or something?"

"There's a Knicks game on," Ezra suggested to Mike. Ezra wasn't the hugest sports fan, but did enjoy watching a game from time to time. Keeping up with the latest scores and rankings also helped him relate to his students.

"Oh yeah! I forgot. I was gonna watch that."

_Sports, good, _Aria thought. _That'll break the ice._

Ezra picked up the remote, turned on the TV and flipped to the right channel. Mike immediately seemed more relaxed, and very interested in the TV. The game was already in progress, but they hadn't missed much.

"I'm going to make something for dessert. Don't you have flour?" Aria asked, checking the last cabinet she thought it might be hiding in.

"Probably…" Ezra assumed, standing. He went to help her look.

.

"Oh come on!" Mike and Ezra both yelled at the TV screen, with the corresponding knee slap and hand gestures, as the ball bounced outrageously out of the net. Open containers of Chinese food were strewn atop the coffee table. Aria sat leaning on the arm of the sofa reading a novel for school.

"Do you want me to lower this?" Ezra asked while the players on the court regrouped.

"No, I can tune it out," she answered without looking up from her book. Aria could read under pretty much any circumstance. As long as there was enough light to see the pages, she was good to go.

He turned his attention back to the TV when her phone buzzed.

.

Ella: Picking up dinner. Have you guys eaten?

Aria: We already ate.

Ella: Are you at home?

Aria: We're at Ezra's.

Ella: Both of you?

Aria: Yeah, you can come over too. There's food left. 3B.

* * *

[To my international readers, (and I know I have some because the stats say so!) the Knicks are a basketball team. Thank you for reading. I think it's awesome there are a handful of people reading my story all over the world. :) ]


	16. Chapter 16

(Part 2 of 3)

The game ended and Aria closed her book, leaving it visible on the end table instead of putting it away. Mike and Ezra both seemed pleased about the outcome of the game, though Aria had no clue who won. She suggested they play a board game and got Operation out of the closet. The TV stayed on - commentary about the game, for background noise, and because one or both of the boys might actually care what the sportscasters had to say, a foreign concept to Aria.

When Ella arrived at the door, she heard loud laughter and buzzing inside. She knocked.

"My mom's here," Aria informed Ezra as she jumped up to answer the door. Ezra looked slightly alarmed. Mike kept missing his target with the tweezers, but looked more determined than ever to grab that funny bone.

Ezra quickly surveyed the place. He felt like his whole life was on display, not that he had anything to hide, as long as Ella didn't check under the bathroom sink and find Aria's hair products, or the dresser drawer containing a few of her underthings and a change of clothes, or the nightstand. _Oh god. The nightstand. _Had they thrown out the pregnancy test? he wondered irrationally. Of course they had. _Ridiculous._ He pushed down all the absurd thoughts racing through his head, like the vision of the little white stick falling from the ceiling, or an array of condoms spontaneously hurling themselves onto the floor at Ella's feet.

Aria pulled the ring off her finger and slid it into her back pocket. This encounter would be tenuous enough without having to worry about Ella jumping to conclusions. She opened the door wide and said, "Hi. I'm glad you came," and smiled. "There's plenty of food left. We ordered Chinese. I'll get you a plate."

Ella stood in the doorway and looked around. The bed was made. Books covered every available surface. Posters of foreign films plastered the walls. A guitar, a typewriter, a record player, a chess board, and a variety of items accumulated from his travels were scattered around the studio apartment. It wasn't what she would call neat, but it was cozy, and seemed to aptly reflect his personality.

"Hi, Ella," Ezra said, quite casually despite his erratic thoughts. He was about to stand when Mike shoved the tweezers at him and said, "It's your turn. Oh, hi, mom."

She slowly closed the door and made her way to the sofa. Ezra regained control of his mental faculties, but lost his turn anyway. He turned to Ella and asked, "Would you like something to drink? Soda, water, coffee?" He had wisely refrained from breaking out a beer this evening, and offering Ella one, knowing she was more of a wine-drinker anyway.

"No thanks."

Aria handed her mom a clean white plate when the oven timer rang. "I made lemon squares," she explained, then went to retrieve them from the oven.

"Mom, here, take Aria's turn," Mike said, handing her the tweezers.

"Let her eat!" Aria called from behind them.

"But I want to take my turn!"

"So wait one minute, I'll be right back."

Mike grumbled internally and put the tweezers down, studying the game board, planning his next strategy of attack. Ezra remembered bickering the exact same way with his brother when they were younger.

Ella was still in observation mode. She began to help herself to some fried rice when Ezra asked, "So you still work at the gallery Friday nights?"

"Did Aria tell you that?" she asked.

"No, you told me once. They still need your help for certain events?" They would frequently have lunch together while they both worked at the high school. Ezra didn't think pretending otherwise would make much sense.

Since Aria _still_ wasn't back, Mike put his head back and started staring mindlessly at the TV again.

"Yeah, they do," Ella said tentatively. "Friday is our busiest night."

"That's nice you still pitch in," Ezra said to Ella while reaching for his glass on the end table.

Ella gave him a forced smile, trying to read an ulterior motive into his words. She noticed the book she'd assigned Aria's class next to the wet coaster.

"Ouch," they heard Aria cry and both turned immediately to see her recoiling from the hot baking dish.

"Run it under cold water," they said simultaneously.

Aria's eyes darted rapidly back and forth between them for a second, then she did as they said. Ezra seemed on the verge of jumping up to go help. They continued to watch her until she said, "It's fine, don't worry."

Aria walked between them and sat next to her mom on the couch, placing the plate of lemon squares on the coffee table next to the game board.

Mike leaned forward again. "Go, it's your turn."

Ezra asked, "Do you want to put something on that?" He had ointment in the medicine cabinet. As he made this offer, all he could picture was Aria's toothbrush tumbling into the sink. In the vision, the plain purple toothbrush flashed ⁂ _· A·R·I·A · _⁂ in bright neon lights and emitted a loud casino jackpot-like siren, so there was no mistake that it belonged to her.

Aria looked down and said, "No, it's nothing." She gave him a quick smile before picking up a card and the tweezers to take her turn. The buzzer went off immediately.

"Finally," Mike said, anxious to take his turn.

"I should get another turn since I'm injured," Aria pouted phonily, holding out her finger for Mike to see.

"Yeah, right," he said, pushing her hand out of the way.

Mike screwed his face up in concentration only to have it fall when the buzzer went off.

"All that buildup for nothing, huh?" Ezra teased.

"Whatever," Mike said, rolling his eyes.

They continued to take turns, hurling insults at one another and laughing. Ella remained largely silent, except when the lemon squares were passed around and she complimented her daughter on the rich tangy flavor [on the tangy flavor?]r. The game came to an end. Mike won, and made sure everyone knew it.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like anything to drink?" Ezra asked Ella while gathering up some plates to take to the kitchen.

"No, thank you. We should get going," she said.

"Okay," Ezra agreed.

Ella held out a set of keys. "Mike, go wait in the car, I'll be down in a minute."

He eyed the keys suspiciously for a moment, then snatched them from her hand. "Do not turn it on!" she yelled as he ran out the door, swinging his bookbag over his shoulder as he disappeared. Aria and Ezra exchanged worried looks, but went about their business tidying up.

"We need to talk," Ella said, prompting them to return to the living room area. "I'm not going to pretend this relationship is not inappropriate," she began.

"What is so inappropriate about it?" Aria demanded. _The homework-doing? The sports-watching? The game-playing? The baking? Or is it the scandalous eating of takeout for dinner?_

"Let me finish," Ella said sternly. "But I also can't pretend that you are some monster corrupting my daughter," she continued, looking at Ezra.

_That's better, _Aria thought. Ezra didn't know how to respond. _Thank you?_

"I'm not going to try to prevent you two from seeing each other. It probably wouldn't do any good anyway."

Aria and Ezra both let out a little sigh of relief, silently acknowledging how true her last statement was.

Ella continued, "There are going to be ground rules though." Aria and Ezra both nodded.

"You have a curfew. It is 11 o'clock. There will be no sleeping over here. You will be home before 11 every night. No exceptions." Aria nodded. If a newly-imposed curfew was the price she'd have to pay for getting to see Ezra openly, she'd gladly pay it.

"School comes first," Ella stated the next ground rule. "You can't spend time together at the expense of your schoolwork."

"Mom, that's not-"

"I'm not done," Ella said. "No alcohol."

Very rarely had they ever shared an alcoholic beverage. Now it wasn't an issue, but Ella didn't know that.

Ezra opened his mouth to speak, but learned by example to keep it shut. Their silence constituted agreement.

"I want you to keep the public displays of affection to a minimum. I don't want to have to explain to the whole world why I'm allowing my daughter to date her former English teacher. And Byron shouldn't have to explain it to your mutual colleagues. I think it's in everyone's best interests this relationship not become common knowledge or a source for gossip."

"Understood," Ezra said.

She turned back to Aria. "And the last thing. No more secrets." Her tone softened a bit. "I can see why you kept this from me, but I do not want it to happen again. I want to know what's going on in your life from now on."

"No more secrets," Aria agreed and gave her mom a hug, torn up inside for making a promise she could not keep.

"Now you go wait in the car with Mike," Ella said. "I'll be right down."

"I drove here," she said.

"Ok, so wait downstairs, or go home."

"Shouldn't I stay to help clean up?" Aria asked.

"I'll take care of it," Ezra said quickly.

Aria eyed the two of them. Resigned, she gathered up her things and left, shooting Ezra a significant glance on her way out.

Ezra turned back to Ella, ready for whatever she had to say to him.

"Do not hurt her. Or lie to her. If I get wind of anything amiss in this relationship, I will end it. Don't think I can't."

"I would never hurt her," Ezra said earnestly.

Ella believed him and that was scariest of all. It took every ounce of mental fortitude to have this conversation with them, to talk herself into letting this 'thing' continue. She could see how serious the two were, how comfortable they were with each other and knew that if she tried to tear them apart, it would only make things worse. Aria was capable of making her own decisions and, as far as she could tell, Ezra wasn't guilty of anything more than falling for her beautiful, charismatic, independent, and, clearly, persuasive daughter. She didn't like it any more than her husband did, but, unlike Byron, was able to see it for what it was. Ella meant it when she said she wouldn't hesitate to shut it down if there was any indication of him becoming a negative force in Aria's life. Ella turned to leave.

"Ella? Thank you," Ezra said.

As she walked out the door, Ella said, "Don't thank me yet."

* * *

[What do you guys think? I really want to hear your thoughts and opinions. Is there anything you like? Hate? What do you think will happen? What do you want to happen? Is updating once a day working for you? I wanna hear it all!

BTW, Operation = board game that requires hand-eye coordination - link to wiki page in my profile ]


	17. Chapter 17

(Part 3 of 3)

Aria waited until she saw her mother pull away to text Ezra to find out what happened.

.

Aria: What did she say?

Ezra: Not to break your heart.

Aria: And will you?

Ezra: Never

Aria: 3 [heart symbol]

.

Aria arrived home minutes after her mother and Mike. Entering her room, she was taken by surprise to see her mom sitting on her bed, waiting.

"Come here, I want to talk to you."

Aria tentatively walked in and put her bag down. "Alright…"

Ella patted the bed and Aria sat down next to her mom.

"I want to make sure you know what you're doing," she said.

"Mom-"

"Let me talk," Ella said. She planned out exactly what she wanted to say and wanted to make sure she got it all out. "Ezra _seems_ like a good person. It is hard for me to understand how he could allow himself to get wrapped up in this, but as far as I can see, he's not doing anything to hurt you."

"He's not," she assured her.

"But if that ever changes, if he ever does anything to pressure you, to make you feel uncomfortable-"

"He doesn't," Aria said, but Ella kept talking. "-that you can come to me. That just because you're.. with him now, doesn't mean.. you have to.. stay with him. What I'm trying to say is, you seem to have gotten yourself into a very adult relationship and I don't want you to forget that you're only 16 years old. If you love him-"

"I do love him."

It was obvious enough to Ella by the way they interacted. "I don't want you to get in over your head here," she said. "And you can always come to me, about anything. I'm on _your_ side," she said, placing a hand on her daughter's leg.

"I know," Aria said, looking at her mother's hand.

"Okay. That's what I came here to say." Ella stood, and hesitated. Not facing Aria's direction, she said, "I'm not gonna ask you if you're sleeping together."

"Mom-"

With a slightly stronger tone, she continued, "But I am going to remind you to be safe, to remember everything we've always talked about. Be smart. And responsible. Please."

"Okay." _We were._

Ella kissed Aria's head. "I love you. It's hard to see you growing up so fast."

"I love you too," Aria said and Ella left.

Aria couldn't bear to look her mother directly in the eye during this conversation. She wanted so badly to share with her the good news, but knew Ella wouldn't see it that way. Not yet.

* * *

[Thanks to everyone who has left comments! Shout out to TotalCowGirl, GilmoreGirls945, and hiding. my .heart for all the encouragement! ]


	18. Chapter 18

(Part 1 of 5)

Ezra reclined on the couch in his office reading What to Expect When You're Expecting. He had prudently wrapped the cover in the book jacket of a novel assigned to his 10 AM class, should anyone happen to see. Aria had told him not to read too far ahead, for his own good, but he didn't like feeling completely unprepared and picked it up again anyway.

"It's just like old times seeing you like that," Jackie said from the doorway.

"Jackie," Ezra acknowledged her as he sat up, trying not to look too startled. He casually pushed the book aside.

"How are your classes going?" she asked, taking the seat next to him.

"They're going well, and yours?"

"Great. Some friends from the Psych department and I were gonna head out for lunch. Thought I'd come ask if you wanted to join us."

"I appreciate the invitation, but I brought something to eat today, and I've got a lot of reading to do."

Aria, on her way to visit Ezra, arrived at the doorway, and, seeing them in there, decided to linger outside and eavesdrop. She didn't feel particularly guilty about it. It was not cool for Jackie, of all people, to be interrupting her plans.

"Another day."

Ezra smiled politely, expecting her to leave.

"We could grab dinner one day this week, catch up, hang out like old times," she suggested.

"Jackie... I'm seeing someone."

_Damn straight_, Aria thought.

"Of course you are," she smiled. "Who is she? Do I know her?"

"I don't think so," he said as he stood up, and took the book with him across the room.

"You never know. It's a pretty small town. Where does she work?" Jackie stood too.

Ezra sat down at his desk. "At, an art gallery," he said, shuffling some papers around. Aria had helped out at the gallery her mom used to run on occasion. It wasn't a complete lie.

"Oh, the one on Main Street?" she pried.

_Yes. _"No... a few towns over," he said with slight irritation building in his voice.

"Hm," she said, nodding. "What's her name?"

By this time, Aria realized what Ezra may not have - Jackie clearly knew about them and she was determined to get him to admit it.

Annoyed by Jackie's nosiness, and ready to get rid of her, Ezra replied, "Marie. Now I've got a lot of work to do, I don't really have time to play 20 questions with you right now," letting his irritation show full force. It was another half-truth. Aria's middle name was Marie.

Jackie took a deep breath. "Cut the crap, Ezra. I know you've been seeing that girl, that _child_. When are you gonna wake up and see what a mistake you're making?"

Without an ounce of uncertainty or hesitation, making no apologies, he said, "She's not a child, and she's not a mistake, and I don't have to defend myself to you."

"But you'll lie to me?"

"It's _none_ of your business."

"I never imagined you'd be capable of something like this. I don't think you realize what you're doing," Jackie told him. "I could let it slip to Professor Montgomery…"

"Go ahead." He was dead serious, and that caught her off guard.

"What?"

Aria decided this was the moment to make her entrance. Her thigh high black leather boots clicked as she strode into the office, a cup of coffee in each hand. "Hello, _darling_," she said, setting down both cups on the desk and sitting on his lap. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him fiercely, making sure Jackie got a good view of her sticking her tongue far down his throat. When she released him, about 10 seconds later, she turned, and said, with a superior grin, "Oh, hi… Jackie, right?" tempted to reintroduce herself as Ezra's present and future lover.

Extremely perturbed by the display, Jackie said, "This is disgusting. You're obviously not the person I thought you were," then stormed off.

"I can't believe she knew about us," Ezra said to Aria, still sitting on his lap. He had his arms crossed around her waist.

"I can," she said as she dropped her school bag to the floor.

"Did you know?" he asked.

"I figured. The way she would talk to me. Is this something we have to worry about?"

"What's the worst thing she can do? Tell your father? We already did that." Ezra did consider Jackie could spread it around the school that Professor Fitz's girlfriend was 16 years old, but he didn't think she was vindictive like that.

"You're right," she agreed. "Gah, I really wanted to rub it in her face that I'm having your baby. Is that terrible?"

"No," he laughed. "So, to what do I owe this surprise visit?"

"I've got an hour for lunch. I wanted to see you," she beamed. "I brought coffee." Aria handed him the cup.

"Mmm, thanks," he said, taking a sip. Ezra was surprised by how happy he felt spotting the ring on her finger.

"You can have mine too. I'm not gonna finish it."

"Why not?"

"I already had a cup this morning. I just like to smell it," she said like a joke, but it was true. "And I feel naked without a cup of coffee in my hand."

"I suppose I could pick up the slack, but I'm not sure I could handle all that caffeine in my system. You're quite the addict," he said, placing the paper cup back down.

"Not anymore. I've gotten it down to one cup a day. It hasn't been easy." _No siree bob._

"Have I told you yet today how much I love you?" he asked. "You shouldn't have to give anything up."

"A few mocha lattes and frappuccinos are nothing compared to the big picture. I'd willingly give up a lot more than that," Aria said truthfully.

"I know you would. And I love you for it. But you're not gonna give up or miss out on anything you don't have to. I'll see to that." It was a promise he intended to keep.

"And that is one of the many reasons why _I_ love _you,_" Aria said, tapping him dotingly on the nose twice. She smiled at him and remembered what she'd come for. "So'd you get a lock for that door yet?" Aria asked casually, glancing over at it.


	19. Chapter 19

Mature content in this chapter, explicit content in the next. No more warnings. Story is rated M for a reason.

* * *

(Part 2 of 5)

"And that is one of the many reasons why _I_ love _you,_" Aria said, tapping him dotingly on the nose twice. She smiled at him and remembered what she'd come for. "So'd you get a lock for that door yet?" Aria asked casually, glancing over at it.

Ezra immediately picked up on the subtext in her tone and the subtle change in the atmosphere of the room. "No..." That door hadn't locked since he'd started working there and probably hadn't locked since the building was first constructed. "May I ask why you'd like to know...?" he asked, though he could already guess the answer.

"No reason," Aria shrugged. She was lying.

"You asked for a reason."

"I may have..." _but it'd be no fun to just come out and say it._

"What is it?" he pressed.

"Guess," she said, moving her face a bit closer to his.

"I want to hear you say it." He knew he could get her to talk dirty if he tried. Some of the things he'd heard her say sometimes... he never expected to hear from someone so small, with such an innocent face.

Aria whispered in his ear. "I couldn't get _any_ satisfaction this morning. _The_ _throbbing_. _Never_. _Stops_." She had come to realize over the past week or so that when she wasn't sleeping, or puking, she wanted him _all the time. _Today, sitting through 7 long hours of school was _not_ an option.

He didn't know which was driving him more wild - her hot breath tickling the inside of his ear, the words she was saying, or the images they produced. "And you think that's something I could help you out with?" Ezra asked, tightening his hold on her. His voice remained level, but he was undeniably excited.

"Well, I was thinking about how much we enjoyed ourselves here the last time I surprised you. On a day a lot like today..." she mused. Aria made the comparison though she knew that day was actually nothing like this day. She had stopped by after school, not during, and her reasons had more to do with using sex to help sort out her confusing feelings and the mixed-signals her subconscious had been sending her. It was also a sort of apology to Ezra for even letting herself consider having feelings for another man. Today, her reasons were a lot more clear-cut.

"I think _I_ enjoyed myself a _little_ more..." She had gone down on him during that too-short 15-minute window they had together before he had to be in class; it was all they'd had time for. The whole hour he let the students take turns leading the discussion because he was too busy fantasizing about how he might return the favor the next time he saw her. He was thrilled when he found she had waited for him, then disappointed when she seemed to not to be in the mood to pick up where they'd left off. Instead, they ate, and talked, and he never brought it up. Until now. "Do you know I still feel bad about that? That I didn't return the favor even though I'd spent so much time coming up with ways I could try."

"For example?"

"Well, one fantasy involved bending you over this desk..." His hands moved back and forth against the hard edge on either side of her.

"We could try it," she said, talking against his ear. "I'm open to new things..."

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I don't want to hurt you. I hadn't planned on being gentle."

She pulled back a little and said, "Fair enough. We'll have to save that one for a date sometime in the future." Eager to hear more, she asked, "What else?"

Slowly, he told her his next fantasy, "One involved you, on your back, on this desk, and your legs, on my shoulders..."

Aria maneuvered herself from his lap to the desk. "Like this?" she asked, leaning back on the palms of her hands and lifting one leg and then the other onto each of his shoulders.

He looked at her hungrily as he reluctantly took hold of her ankles and placed her feet back down by his knees. "The door's open," he said, standing and walking away. Ezra had been aware of this fact the entire time she'd been sitting on his lap, but it didn't matter until now. He peeked briefly into the hall, empty, in the immediate surrounding area at least, and shut the door. He then pulled over the same wood and leather chair Aria had used those weeks ago and secured it under the doorknob, just as she had done last time. Then Ezra remembered he had purchased a door stop shortly after that visit, but, until today, it had only been put to use to prop the door open. He moved the little rubber wedge from the corner with his foot, and kicked it into the space under the door.

Ezra turned to look at her, loosening his tie, and undoing the top buttons of his shirt. In the time it had taken him to "lock" the door, she had pushed most of his books and knick knacks to the far ends of the desk and undone the top 3 snaps of her dress, revealing a peek at a black lace bra and newly enhanced cleavage. She sat twisted around, watching him. Ezra said, "You have to be quiet," as he strode back over to the desk. He picked up the lamp with the metal shade and placed it on the floor, then moved the cups of coffee to the chair in front of the desk.

"I'll be quiet," she promised, to him and to herself, and started to unzip one of her boots, thinking _that didn't take much convincing_.

"No. Leave them on," he instructed as he took his seat in front of her. She obediently drew the zipper back up slowly, unbelievably turned on by the way he was taking charge, wondering if perhaps he had a leather fantasy he'd never shared.

"Where were we?" she said, lifting her legs to their former position. He could smell the leather and feel the texture of her boots on his neck.

"When do you have to be back?" he asked, pulling open the snaps of the red and black plaid shirt dress she wore, starting at the bottom. When he saw the lacy black hipster panties she had on underneath, he knew she had planned this. Maybe not _this_ exactly, but he knew the real reason she'd stopped by wasn't to bring him coffee. And he was totally okay with it.

He bunched up the cottony fabric around her waist, caressing her hips in the process, and contemplating whether he should also remove her belt, as she twisted around to see the clock on the wall behind her. "35 minutes," she replied, making eye contact with him, his head between her knees.

Both of his hands were now massaging her hips underneath the elastic of her panties, now soaked. She had shrewdly packed a fresh pair into her school bag this morning, coming prepared for this 'lunch break.' The anticipation was making made the moment when he would actually touch her all the better. He licked his lips and said, "That's _plenty_ of time."

* * *

[A link to a picture of Aria's dress can be found in my profile. ]


	20. Chapter 20

So sorry for not posting earlier! I was away from the computer all day!

Please don't let this chapter color your opinion of the story. It's not all like this, though there will be more sex scenes. Feel free to skip ahead to where the dialogue starts if you want.

Also, it gets funnier, so stick with it please. :)

* * *

(Part 3 of 5)

Aria was lying on top of the cleared surface of his desk, half undressed. Ezra felt the stretchy material of her panties pressing gently against his knuckles as he slid them carefully down her legs, over her boots. The fair skin of her inner thighs ascalled to him and he spent time kissing each oneone. "Ezra," she rasped lowly, reaching out for his head. "I can't take it." She thought she had made it clear she didn't need to be worked up slowly because she was already all worked up from an entire day of fantasizing.

Heartened by her words, he nibbled his way closer, and said, "Relax," before giving her what she wanted. First, he used his thumb to rub her clitoris while his forearms held her down. Then he pressed his lips to her folds and licked them, parting them, needing to use more of his strength to keep her still. She was right about the anticipation making this moment even better. He knew exactly how to touch her, exactly what she liked. When he pushed his tongue inside, he could tell what an effort she was making to keep quiet, letting out controlled sighs.

His thumb kept rubbing the sensitive bump, while his tongue licked the spongy tissue, over and over. The sighs turned to stifled screams which escaped as low grunts and her hands were balled up into tight fists at her sides, trying with great effort to still herself, though it wasn't much in her control. Ezra probed his tongue further and further inside always returning to the spot he knew gave her the greatest pleasure. Aria felt unable to breath as she used her heels on the back of the chair to pull herself closer and shamelessly churned her hips against his face to increase the pressure and the friction. He continued pumping his tongue in deeper and faster, even when he felt her walls start to constrict around it. Her body started shaking and she yelled, "Fuuuuuuuuucccccccckkkkk," but he didn't stop.

He rolled the wet mound around his thumb and forefinger, stimulating the delicate nerves, and kept moving his tongue skillfully as she exploded again, her heels digging into his back, propelling herself against him, unable to swallow the screams as her muscles tightened again and the second unimaginable orgasm rocked through her. With a few more flicks of the tongue, she came once more with a breathy "Hhhhhh," as the sensation rippled through her body an unprecedented third time. Then she wilted.

Ezra kissed his way up to her navel, then backed up, letting her calves remain on his shoulders as he took some deep breaths and licked his lips clean. Aria brought her hands up to her chest and tried to control her breathing. He gave her a moment, then took her legs and let them dangle over the edge of the desk. She sat herself up and finally looked at him, lustfully.

"You call that quiet?"

"You didn't exactly make it easy."

He appreciated the compliment, hoping no one outside heard her yelling. "That was.. new, yes?" he asked.

"A perk," she explained. _A fucking fantastic perk._ "How do you propose we take care of that?" she asked, staring down at the obvious bulge in his pants.

"Any way you'd like," he said.

Aria debated internally for about one second, then hopped down in front of him, wobbling briefly. She tugged on his hand and led him to the leather armchair in corner furthest from the door. Ezra stood facing her in front of it and she pulled off his loosened tie before methodically undoing each shirt button, starting at the top where he'd left off earlier. Then she pulled at his belt buckle and unzipped his trousers and pushed them, along with his boxers, all the way to the floor. "Sit," she instructed.

Ezra did as she said, forever amused by her bossiness, and Aria climbed onto his lap, the leather of her boots sticking to the chair and squeaking as she adjusted her position. "Do you think you could get me to come again?" she asked, resting her arms on his shoulders and her fingers atop his head.

He nodded determinedly. The word 'insatiable' came to mind.

Aria kissed his nose and smiled. Then she traced his bottom lip with her tongue and kissed him fiercely. He returned the kiss as she ground against him until she could feel the response she was looking for. He pulled the open dress off her shoulders, but it remained attached to her body by the wide belt around her waist. His hands crept around to her back as she lowered herself onto him and sighed against his cheek. As she began to move up and down, he unhooked her bra. She freed herself from it, dropping it over the arm of the chair, landing on the small table to their right.

He kissed her neck and she arched backward, urging him to continue lower. Her steady breathing stumbled when he captured a taut nipple in his mouth and the familiar tingle returned. He thrust up into her every downward motion, maximizing impact, intently driving himself deeply into her, the position she chose making the task easy to achieve. One hand cupped her other breast, rolling and pinching the darkened bud between his fingers while he sucked and tugged on the other one with his lips. She shuddered each time he flicked it with his tongue and kept grinding her hips, lifting herself up and forcing herself back down on him, bouncing with a purpose, growing ever closer to her goal. She flexed her muscles around him and the arm around her back pulled her in tight as he came explosively inside her. The hot sensation spurred her own orgasm and she cried out, arching her back involuntarily, not ceasing the motion of her hips until she rode out the entire wave. He held onto her so she didn't fall, then they collapsed backward into the chair, her chin being supported by his shoulder as she struggled to breathe, her heart beating against his bare chest.

Ezra could feel her pulse against his neck and waited for it, and his own, to slow to a reasonable tempo before lifting her up and standing, leaving her seated in the chair alone. He pulled up his pants and picked up some tissues to use to clean themselves up. After they did, he crouched down before the mini fridge hidden inside a cabinet and pulled out a cold bottle of water. He chugged about half of it as she picked up her bra and slipped her arms in, then grimaced. He saw the look as he was about to hand her the bottle and asked, "What's wrong?"

She rubbed her left breast with one hand and frowned. "Nothing," Aria said unconvincingly and hooked the bra behind her back, not seeing the slight scowl on his face. Ezra sat next to her, or rather, next to and under her, on the chair not wide enough for them to sit side by side, pulling her up so she sat across his lap, and handed her the water. She gulped it down, leaving only a small amount swirling at the bottom, then he hugged her around the waist, resting his chin on her shoulder and asked, "Why didn't you say I was hurting you?" During the evening after he had given her the ring and they'd fallen into bed together, Ezra heated up their dinner which had gotten cold, and she reminded him they had been having sex the whole month before either knew she was pregnant and told him it would bug her if he started treating her differently. So he allowed himself to get caught up in it this afternoon, but now felt like he'd done the wrong thing.

"It felt pretty good at the time..." she recalled fondly, but now her breasts felt tender, from the attention they'd received, and the lace fabric of her bra itched.

"This is all.. really new for me," he began.

"And me too," she pointed out as she slipped her arms back into the short-sleeved dress one at a time.

"It's uncharted territory, for both of us. I'm taking all my cues from you here, I'm doing what you said. Just... keep me updated," Ezra requested and began to do up the snaps of her dress, resolving to not get so carried away next time. When he finished, she did the same for him.

Aria had nodded, seemingly agreeing to his request, but didn't feel the need to fill him in on every little detail of how her body was beginning to feel not her own anymore.

"Could you hand me my bag?" Aria asked tiredly, seeing it across the room and not feeling like getting up to get it. Ezra took her hand and lifted it to his lips, kissing the ring, then he slid out from under her and took a few steps. He picked the grey studded thing up off the floor behind his desk and walked it over to her. She smiled up at him as she pulled out that fresh pair of undies, plain black cotton ones.

He could see the fatigue in her body language as she carefully slipped them over her boots. "Don't leave," he said.

Laughingly, she told him, "I think I'm spent," as she pulled the panties up. "Maybe I could come over late-"

"No, that's what I mean. I can't let you go back there like this. Stay. Skip next period and stay. Take a nap."

Aria thought about it. She was definitely tired, and felt funny, and strangely unsatisfied, but not in the way she felt earlier.

"What'll you miss?" he continued making his case. "Some details about World War I? Have Hanna take notes for you." Ezra still knew her schedule even though he didn't work there anymore and knew which of her friends were in each of her classes. English was the only class they all had together.

"I don't think I'd miss anything in history, but I have to be back for a math test right after."

"I'll wake you in time. I don't have anywhere to be 'til 3. I won't let you miss your test," Ezra promised.

"You don't have office hours today?"

"No, thank _god._ Can you imagine?" The door stays open during office hours.

Aria laughed. "Alright," she agreed.

He picked up his necktie and hung it on the coat rack, then balled up a sweatshirt he had hanging there and brought it to the sofa. She sat down next to it, dropping the grey bag to her feet. Ezra went back to his desk and rearranged the items back to their former positions, placing the lamp back where it belonged and moving the coffee cups from the chair. While he did this, Aria had reclined back onto the make-shift pillow, adjusting it under her head to get comfortable, then smoothing the wrinkles out of her dress. He picked up the discarded panties and tucked them into her purse, retrieving her phone at the same time and handing it to her. "Don't wanna keep 'em?" Aria asked, bemused.

Ezra had strongly considered it. "I'll let you know," he said with a smile she could hear in his voice, but didn't see on his face because his back was turned.

Aria texted Hanna.

.

Aria: Got held up. Take notes for me.

.

Ezra pulled the chair out from under the doorknob and slid it back into place beside the door, then gently kicked the door stop back against the wall. If anyone happened to knock, the need for him to get up and remove those obstacles would prove he had something to hide, which was no longer the case.

.

Hanna: U with Fitz?

.

Ezra picked up the pregnancy book, still in disguise, and took a seat on the sofa, moving Aria's legs to rest on his lap.

.

Aria: Perhaps

Hanna: U met him for a nooner?

.

Aria sputtered.

"What's funny?" Ezra asked.

.

Aria: Lol

.

"She used the word 'nooner.'"

Ezra laughed as well, combing his hair flat with his fingers. "You told them why you came here?" he asked, not upset, but slightly weirded out by the thought. It took a little getting used to the idea her friends knew about them and could potentially be discussing their little get-together around the lunch table at school right now.

"No, are you kidding? ..Hanna's mind is always in the gutter."

Relieved, and amused, Ezra turned back to his book and Aria said, "I tell them everything, but not _everything_."

He certainly hoped not. "You can, you know. Tell them," he said after a moment.

She knew he meant about the baby, not their sex-capades. "I know," she said looking at the ring. "What are you reading?" she asked, dropping the phone back into her purse. She didn't see the text from Hanna.

.

Hanna: That's not a no!

* * *

[If I don't say it enough, _thanks for reading_! I truly appreciate it and especially appreciate comments, so tell me what you're thinking, ask questions, make suggestions! And tune in tomorrow for the next chapter. :) ]


	21. Chapter 21

(Part 4 of 5)

Ezra peeled back the cover and showed her the book.

"Didn't I tell you not to read that?"

"Yes, but how else am I supposed to learn what's going on? I'm basically clueless."

"You can read it, but you can't skip ahead," Aria told him. "You think we'll have many more encounters like this once you've read all about childbirth and looked at all those illustrations?" _She_ hadn't even read that far ahead yet.

"You're being ridiculous."

"Hand it over." She held out her hand. "You can have it back in a few weeks."

"I can have it back in about 30 minutes," he stated as he handed her the book. "I doubt you're gonna take it with you to school, or leave it in your car. You're much too smart for that." He knew her too well. "..I won't read it though, if that's what you want."

"It's what I want."

Aria set the book down on the floor in front of the sofa. Ezra reached over to the nearby shelf and pulled off the first book his hand fell upon. It was a crime novel he had started once, but never bothered to finish. Now was as good a time as any. "Let's not make a habit of this, okay?" he said as he flipped through the book, trying to remember where he'd left off.

She hadn't planned on it, but said, "Why not? Didn't you have a good time? I know I did."

"Yes. A very good time. But now you're exhausted and missing school. ..I don't want you to think this is all you are to me," he said, looking over at her from his end of the couch.

Aria lowered her chin to look at him. "Now who's being ridiculous? I came to you! If anything, _I_ should be checking _you_ don't think _I_ think you're nothing more than a booty call."

He almost laughed at her use of the term. "You know I don't think that."

She relaxed her head and looked at the ceiling again. "Which is why I didn't say it."

"You know I'm just as happy doing this with you, sitting, doing nothing, as I am doing that."

"I do know. Me too," she said, then added, "Usually."

He laughed.

"And it was your idea for me to skip school," she reminded him. She would have headed straight back there and probably fallen asleep halfway through history had Ezra not suggested staying. She had already nodded off a handful of times over the past month in the back of her economics class during one of Mr. Egerton's notorious snooze-inducing lectures, not thinking to attribute it to the pregnancy until recently because she hadn't known any better, and it wasn't like she was the first student to do so. She was grateful for a) Mr. Egerton's nearsightedness, b) the fact that she didn't snore, and c) the girl who sat next to her's willingness to let Aria copy her notes at the beginning of the next class without asking questions. If she were ever caught, she planned to tell a half-truth, saying she'd recently switched to decaf and was still adjusting to the lack of caffeine.

"Because right now your rest is more important."

"Okay," she agreed, though clearly, she was already planning on staying.

"So we won't make a habit of it then," Ezra confirmed.

His pressing the point rubbed her the wrong way. Aria leaned up on her elbows and asked, "Do you not want me here? Because I can probably still make it back in time." _Or nap in my car in the parking lot,_ which she had actually already done once.

Mystified, he asked, "What part of what I just said makes you think I don't want you here?"

His tone irritated her. "All of it. Now it seems like you wish I'd never come."

"That's ridiculous. I always want-"

"Stop calling me ridiculous," she snapped.

"I'm not calling you ridiculous, you're putting words in my mouth."

It was like he was intentionally trying to provoke her. "You just said it. You said 'that's ridiculous.'"

"The idea I don't want you here IS ridiculous!"

Aria blinked, hoping the tears developing in her eyes wouldn't fall.

_Stop arguing_, he told himself. "Tell me what's bothering you."

"Nothing," she sniffed. "I don't know. Nothing." Not very long ago she was sitting on his lap, happier than ever and now she was arguing with him and crying for no reason.

The other day, Aria felt an unearthly rage toward her mother when she discovered her favorite sweatshirt had gone through the dryer, shrinking it just enough for all the zippers to pucker and ripple in the ugliest possible way. She recognized that storming downstairs and strangling Ella with the garment, as was her instinct, would be out of character, so instead she threw it across the bedroom and kicked over the laundry basket and took her revenge in her mind. But she hated seeing the previously neatly stacked pile of clothes in a messy heap on the floor, so she moved it all to the bed and started folding it herself. Tears started falling when the asymmetrical t-shirt with a peacock silk-screened on the front wouldn't transform into a neat little square like the others.

Another day, Ella found her in the living room reading a book and crying. It wasn't a sad book, she was crying nonsensically over a scene involving a dog playing fetch, but Aria pretended that one of the characters had died when Ella asked. It wasn't as if she'd never teared up reading before, so she didn't think it raised any red flags, but she did decide to hang out in her room instead from then on.

Aria started to notice the trend and figured going from one emotional extreme to another was a part of pregnancy she'd have to get used to.

"What is it? What did I do?" Seeing her cry felt like tiny daggers piercing his chest, deflating his lungs.

She didn't answer because he didn't _do_ anything. Instead she cast her eyes downward as another tear trickled all the way down to her chin and hovered there for a second and a half before dropping onto her chest.

Thinking pressuring her to stay may be where he went wrong, he gently suggested, "Look, if _you_ don't want to be here, why don't you go home? Take the rest of the day off, tell your mom you weren't feeling well." Ezra started thinking this would be harder on her than he originally thought. The night he'd given her the ring, he helped her into her coat as she was on her way out and kissed her goodbye, the same as any other day. Then he said "_Aria?_" and she paused in the doorway. "_We're doing this?_" he had asked. "_We're having a baby?_" She spun herself around to see him standing there, awaiting her confirmation. Her lips pressed together and tears rose to her eyes, the happy tears he liked to see, and her head bobbed up and down in quick little shakes before he swept her up in spinning embrace. "_We're having a baby_," she repeated as a statement of fact and kissed his smiling lips. Her words made it feel like it would be the easiest thing in the world. It was decided. They were having a baby. The end. Wrong.

"No, I can't do that. I can't let her see me if I'm feeling crappy, but not really sick. She'll know something's up." If Ella ever caught her throwing up, she would pretend to have come down with a bug, or perhaps feign food poisoning, whichever seemed more believable at the time, but knew she couldn't get away with it more than once.

Picking up on her choice of words, he asked, "Are you feeling crappy?"

"I don't know, a little bit," she replied, wiping a tear.

"Crappy like we should call the doctor crappy?" Ezra asked, alarmed.

She put her head back on the "pillow" and said, "No, just your run-of-the-mill non-specific general crappiness."

Of course, he believed he was responsible for her current mood, one way or another, and only wanted to make it better, the best he could. "What would make you feel better? I can leave. You can have the place to yourself." He could kill time in the library, though he really didn't want to leave her alone seeming so sad and possibly not feeling well.

"No, please don't." Aria didn't know what was bothering her, but knew she'd feel worse if he left.

Glad he could stay with her, he asked, "Are you hungry? I can get you something to eat," knowing food was often the solution to their problems. His own lunch was sitting in the mini-fridge across the room, and he was always willing to share, or he could grab something from the dining hall, whose offerings weren't half bad compared to most.

"No, I feel very much _not_ like eating right now." She felt no nausea at the moment, but the idea of food did not sit well, conjuring the still-fresh memory of yesterday morning's unpleasant meeting with the upstairs toilet.

At a loss, Ezra sighed and said, "Maybe you need your mom more than me right now. I'll deal with the consequences if you want to tell her." Those consequences scared him immensely.

Aria hadn't told him how much she wanted to do that, how much she wanted to curl up on her mother's lap some days and just cry, and it made her love him more that he'd guessed it. But she wasn't about to ruin the whole plan because she was feeling a little blue. "No, you're all I need. I'm just tired. I'm just gonna sleep."

Ezra hoped he could be the person she needed him to be and that it wasn't a mistake keeping Ella out of the loop. "Do you want me to wake you in time for math or no?"

"Yes."

"Because I'm sure you could make it up. You could.. say you had car trouble." Encouraging her to lie and skip school was not something he'd ever expected to do, nor something he liked doing.

"No, I'm saving that one in case I really need it one day." Aria kept a little file in her brain of assorted excuses and explanations for various situations that might arise. "I'm sure I'll feel better in a little while. Don't let me sleep too long."

"Okay," Ezra said and leaned over her body to kiss her forehead. She closed her eyes and folded her arms, and he wished he could offer her a real pillow or a blanket.

Ezra opened his book and waited for her to fall asleep, which didn't take long once they'd stopped talking. He had literally been in the middle of reading about the mood swings which tend to crop up around the 6th week when Jackie interrupted him earlier and it only _just_ now clicked that's what was going on. It's often hard to see what's happening while it's happening and all too easy to play right into it. He told himself to be more aware of similar radical mood shifts in the future, though knew he'd probably put his foot in his mouth a few dozen more times over the coming months.


	22. Chapter 22

(Part 5 of 5)

Ezra couldn't focus on the novel, much as he tried. "You're not going through any of this alone," he had said, but the indisputable truth was she _was_ going through it alone. From what he gathered, pregnancy was no walk in the park, and must be doubly hard being 16, having to deal with school, treading unsteady ground at home regarding their relationship, and keeping it secret on top of it. Knowing it was his fault ate at him, regardless of how much he loved the idea of being a father. He went back and forth between picturing a little boy or girl with Aria's features sitting on his shoulders and thinking about all the reasons it shouldn't be happening now for the entire 25 minutes she slept, until there came a knock at the door.

Ezra looked at Aria, still sleeping peacefully, then at the door and said, "Come in. Quietly, if you can." He figured it would be okay since they weren't in a compromising position. Anymore.

A student from his morning class opened the door, at first, only seeing Fitz on the sofa. "I wasn't sure if you'd be here, I know your office hours are tomorrow, I just had a quest-" As he stepped inside, he noticed Aria's legs on Fitz's lap, and then the rest of her. He lowered his voice and said, "I can come back if it's not a good time."

"No, it's fine," Ezra said, closing his book and setting it down on the arm of the sofa. "I'm supposed to wake her any minute anyway, as long as you don't mind." Ezra was having this informal session on his own time, always happy to make himself available to students, even outside scheduled meeting times. Had he been on the clock, he wouldn't have allowed any of it. Aria picked the right day.

"Uh, no," he said uncertainly and left the door ajar.

Ezra gestured for him to sit in the chair which had been propping the door shut less than an hour ago. The student picked it up and set it down a little closer to Ezra, making sure to do so noiselessly. As he sat, Ezra said, "What's up?"

"I just wanted to go over why I got a B on the last analysis," he said, pulling the stapled sheets of paper from a folder in his messenger bag and handing them over. As Ezra leaned forward to take the paper, the student continued, "and ask if the grade is at all negotiable," and Aria's feet started to move.

"Like I've always said," Ezra said, sitting back, resting his arms on Aria's boots, "I'm always willing to take a second look at your assignments and I'm willing to give back points if you can make a case for it."

The student nodded, still uncomfortable with Aria's presence.

_This is not weird,_ Aria thought as she opened her eyes, _sitting in on a meeting with a student. _But she also liked seeing him in teacher mode. She kind of missed it.

"Was there anything in particular you wanted to start with?" Ezra asked the boy.

"Mm, yeah on the second page I used a quote from page 78 of the book and your note was kind of vague, like I should have used it somewhere else? I'm not sure." Ezra started flipping to the second page of the typed assignment as the student said, "Can we use your copy? I left mine in my room," and bent down to pick it up from the floor by Ezra's feet.

Aria was now wide awake and shifting herself upright.

"Oh, that's not-" Ezra started to say, reaching out, but the student had already opened it up and the confusion on his face made it clear he realized his mistake.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said and handed it to Ezra.

Aria saw the whole thing. "Hi..." she said to the boy, glancing for a split second at the clock on the wall.

"Aria, this is Mark, he's in my morning class, he-"

"I totally barged in, sorry," Mark jumped in. "Sorry to wake you up." He wasn't sure if he should leave yet or not. He wan't sure if he wanted to hear them try to explain.

"No, it's okay, you have perfect timing actually." Aria caught him looking her over as she swung her feet around to the floor. "What did you see..?" she asked.

"Nothing, I promise," he said and she knew he was lying.

"It's just that... we just found out and we haven't told anybody yet," Aria began.

_Keep it simple,_ Ezra told himself. "And it's bad luck to tell people right away," Ezra continued. He knew saying more would be inviting trouble.

"I'm very superstitious," Aria added, following Ezra's lead. "I wish you hadn't seen that." It was the Aria he knew, no longer sad and weepy, but thinking on her toes, selling the perfect lie on the spot.

"Would you please not mention this to anybody?" Ezra requested, mistakenly thinking they were in the clear.

"I..." Thinking how wildly inappropriate a situation he just walked in on, Mark had to ask the question he had been wondering ever since he opened the door and saw her there with their assigned novel on the floor. "Are you the girl who sits in the back of our class and never talks?" It was bad enough seeing her asleep on top of him, wondering why Fitz wasn't even bothering to hide it, then to find out she was pregnant - a million things started running through his mind like shock his favorite professor was not who he seemed, sympathy for his classmate, confusion why they were acting like it was no big deal, fear about how his grade might suffer if he told, and then getting over it and wondering if he should talk to his advisor first, or go straight to the dean.

"No... Jump to the wrong conclusions much?" she said sarcastically, though technically it was the right conclusion, he just didn't know it.

"Aria," Ezra said sharply, knowing sarcasm was not the answer. Ezra never thought if someone saw them together in his office, especially sitting like that, they would assume she was a student. He did _not_ need new rumors being spread about him at a new school, or Aria's father getting wind of it. "You're thinking of Marissa. Alvarez," he said calmly to Mark. Besides both girls having long brown hair, they looked nothing alike, but Ezra could see why he might confuse them if he'd never looked directly at Marissa. "This is Aria, my girlfriend. She doesn't go here."

"Well, technically, I do. I take that pottery class.." Aria spoke up, feeling she should correct him. What if she ran into Mark on campus sometime? Aria believed honesty was actually the best policy in this case.

Ezra didn't think so. "But it's not against university bylaws," Ezra explained. "I checked before she signed up."

Aria agreed, "Right."

"Oh, okay," Mark said, extremely relieved. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that. I was seriously freaking out." He took a breath, sitting back in the chair he hadn't realized he was halfway out of, and said, "Sorry. For jumping to the wrong conclusion."

"It's no problem," Ezra said, waiting for his answer, thankful Aria's confession didn't complicate things.

"I won't mention it," he promised. "I know nothing." Who'd care if Professor Fitz's girlfriend was pregnant anyway? Pretty much no one by his estimation. Mark might mention she was hot if it ever happened to come up, but had no intention of telling anyone their business, especially when specifically asked not to.

"Thank you," they both said. Then Aria said, "I gotta go," and picked up her bag.

"You feeling better?" Ezra asked as she got to her feet.

"Mmhm," she said and gave him a quick peck.

"Call me later," he said.

"K. It was nice meeting you," she said to Mark then left, in search of the nearest ladies' room, for the usual reason, and also to check her makeup and fix her hair. She felt about a thousand percent better than before, and was only mildly worried the boy might repeat what happened today.

Ezra wound up giving Mark 4 points back on his analysis paper, bumping his grade to a B+, not because he could potentially blow their secret wide open, but because he was always inclined to reward students for taking the initiative to stop in and discuss their grade. Not many bothered to do that even though he'd made it clear all semester that it was worth their while. By the end of their meeting, Ezra felt relief, finding no indication Mark would not keep his promise.

* * *

[Go ahead and picture this kid as the one who makes the case for his short story to Fitz in 2.17 The Blond Leading the Blind - link to screencap in my profile. ]


	23. Chapter 23

Aria and Ezra sat on opposite ends of the couch in his apartment on a typical Saturday afternoon. It wasn't entirely typical. Only 3 Saturdays prior had they discovered she was pregnant, and there was nothing _typical_ about that, but in most other ways it was a fairly typical lazy drizzly Saturday afternoon. Late afternoon, to be more specific. Aria held a book for English class on her knees and flipped a page with her thumb. She had 50 pages to get through before Monday morning, but every time she tried to read it, she'd only get through a few pages before wanting to nod off or her mind drifted to other thoughts clouding her brain.

Ezra also had a book on his lap, but it was mostly for show because he was more interested in listening to the Greg Laswell album he'd just put on the record player, once Aria had promised it wouldn't be distracting. He had been looking forward to its release for a while now and wanted to listen to it first chance he got. So far he was really enjoying it.

He glanced over and saw Aria with this ambivalent sort of look about her face as she stared off into space, if space was the air in front of the seam between the couch cushions under her be-socked feet. He wondered what she was thinking about and if it had anything to do with what he thought about nearly 24/7 these past few weeks. Were they caught in the right place at the wrong time? Was this all going to work out the way he wanted it to? He could imagine sitting there with this little person between them on a Saturday afternoon just like this one, reading the paper, watching cartoons. And he could also imagine sitting there alone.

Ezra shook away the thought and saw that she hadn't caught him staring yet. He had this urge to turn her neutral expression into a happy one, so he decided to surprise her with a kiss. He leaned over, lifted her chin, and pressed his lips to hers without any warning. When he pulled away, he could see the corners of her mouth were upturned, exactly what he'd been hoping to see.

"What was that for?" she asked.

"Because I love you," he replied and went back to his end of the sofa.

It was so like him to do something like that, and for a simple kiss to instantly put her in a better mood. Gone were the thoughts of all the different ways the plan could go wrong/fall apart. Aria closed the book she was unable to get into, and crawled forward to give _him_ a surprise kiss. He was actually looking away in response to a noise, real or imagined, coming from the kitchen area, most likely a pipe inside the wall or some other non-descript noise old buildings make from time to time, and turned back only in time to see her full pink lips coming at him. During the liplock, she walked forward on her knees, brought her hands to his face and then sat sideways on his lap.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"Because I love you," she replied, and kissed him again. Their tongues battled lightly while she cupped his cheek and ran a hand through his hair, which she preferred to be in a messy state. Ezra held onto her around the waist and eventually his hands glided up and under her top. Aria deepened the kiss and let her hands fall and start picking at the hem of his t-shirt. She broke the kiss during her attempt to pull it up. His eyes asked, 'you want to?' and her tiny nod indicated 'mmhm.' The desire came and went in waves. Some days it was the only thing on her mind, and others, it was the last thing. Today, it seemed to be on the upswing.

He let her pull his shirt over his head and reengaged their lips. And tongues, still moving softly against each other. Aria slid herself backwards off his lap, criss crossed her arms, and pulled the dark blue sheer lace tee over her head, taking the solid black cami she wore underneath with it, revealing a simple black t-shirt bra with scallop detailing along the edges. Ezra resituated himself, continuing the kiss, following her lead to become more horizontal. Hands traveled all over while they made out on the sofa, momentarily carefree.

Ezra found the button of her grey skinny jeans, popped it open with two fingers, then drew down the short zipper. He sat backward at the end Aria had been sitting at earlier and pulled down her jeans by the belt loops. Or tried to. He adjusted his grip and tugged, turning the top portion inside out on itself, but they would only go so far. "Did you paint these on?" he asked, laughing. The top edge of the black boyshorts she wore had become visible, adorned with a tiny satin bow.

"Practically," she said, remembering this morning how she was hopping around like a crazy person trying to pull them up, then had to stop for a minute, afraid she was giving herself motion sickness, not that there was anything left in her stomach to come up. "Pretty soon I won't be able to fit into them, and I look hot in these jeans, I wanna enjoy it while it lasts." _And I'm sure you do too._

He dodged the weight comment, saying, "You'd look even hotter out of them," still struggling with the problematic garment.

Aria lifted her feet at him and said, "You pull, I'll push," and with significant effort and much laughter, they managed to accomplish the task. Removing _his_ jeans did not prove nearly as difficult.

They did what came naturally, playfully kissing and taking off their remaining undergarments as they pleased, until they were completely unclothed and he was positioned above her. Ezra was reminded of an evening less than 7 weeks ago when they also just didn't feel like moving from the couch to the bed. The main differences - she was facing the other direction with her head on the cushion, not on the arm of the sofa, and instead of fumbling over her jeans, they were fumbling for a condom from her purse. Despite all of his apprehensions about it, pregnancy did have its advantages. She thought so too.

And then at the same leisurely pace the whole day had passed, they became firmly fastened together and rocked slowly along with the music. Aria felt a warm fuzzy tingle in her toes and a real gentle stirring deep down inside. She focused on the warmth of his body, and the way he seemed to wholly envelop her in it. A low rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance, matching the low rumble she felt at her core.

Sometimes Ezra felt like his main purpose in the world was to make her happy, in every possible way, and he could tell she was relaxed and happy now based on her smooth breathing and the easy smile he could see in between tender kisses. Her smile had drawn him in from first the second he'd seen it. He was captivated by it, but couldn't decide if he preferred seeing the way her entire face lit up when she flashed those pearly whites, or feeling the corners of her mouth high against his own, as they were now.

They always seemed to be in sync. Somehow he just _knew_ when she wanted to go slow, without her having to say a word, and today was one of those days. She was curled up below him as he took repeated short fluid strokes, causing the stirring she felt to swirl a little faster and her breathing to become slightly more erratic, as she pulled him closer. She let out a low whine as a shiver of excitement ran up her spine. He cradled her small body as they mounted the peak they were climbing together. Her head fell back against the arm of the couch, and her mouth fell open, inhaling and inhaling over again, never able to get enough air. Her instinct was to close her eyes, but she kept them open and held his gaze, panting, grasping desperately at the back of his neck. He held her tightly as her whole world shook.

The all-encompassing tingling faded to a dull throb, and a serene smile fell across her face. Ezra dropped a foot to the ground and she took a deep breath, expecting him to finish, but then she started coming again. He pulled her up in a tight embrace, trying to figure out if the thumping against his chest was her heartbeat or his own, and she could feel his uneven breath against her cheek. No matter how close he held her, her body was pleading, reaching to draw him in as close as possible, and deepen the connection. United as one, again she surrendered, her entire consciousness filled with elation and joy, which he shared in his time. Neither was aware of how much tension had been building up until it was released in a flood that left them both with a sense of calm.

Ezra laid her back down and Aria ran her palms back over her hair, sweeping away some beads of perspiration, stretching, and smiling, matching his equally happy expression.

A thought crossed his mind. "Can I try something?" he asked, not yet breathing at a normal rate.

Aria's expression didn't change, only her chest rose and fell while she waited for him to explain.

"The other day.." he began, rubbing a palm against her side, "was not just a fluke?" He'd been wondering this in the back of his mind ever since the encounter in his office, when he'd gotten a taste of the new possibilities, but hadn't thought to ask. And there hadn't been any indication she wanted to test it out in the days afterward.

She understood the question. Instead of laughing, Aria shook her head the tiniest bit and replied sincerely, "No, I don't think it was." Twice in a row was unusual, but come to think of it, had become more frequent as of last month. Three was unheard of, until that day.

"I want to see how it works," he said, somewhat bashfully.

He looked at her like he was waiting for an answer. Which, in her opinion, was _crazy_. "What, you think I'm gonna say no?" she laughed.

Ezra laughed too, supposing she was right, but still, he had to check first before forging ahead. "Okay," he said, "just tell me if you want me to stop, or do something different."

Aria nodded slowly, wondering exactly what she was in for here, and very excited to find out.

So Ezra set out on his mission to learn exactly how the new system worked, to find out how many times he could send waves of pleasure rolling through her body. He treated it like a science experiment, the results of which he would file away for future reference.

There was some gentle stimulation using his lips, and his tongue, and his fingertips. There was some loud breathing and quiet moaning, more squeaking, less squealing. There was some poking and prodding and much giggling in between the gasping and groaning. She was actually surprisingly quiet, and extra squirmy. He analyzed her every response to his every touch. He studied up, and learned when to persist and when to move on to somewhere else. The record ended at some point, but kept spinning, making a _click, click, click_ noise until the experiment was complete and Ezra lifted the stylus.

.

Aria yawned while she was trying to untangle the black cami from the balled up blouse which had landed on the floor earlier, and not having an easy time of it. "You really know how to wear a girl out," she said.

Ezra stood behind her, wearing a towel, having just taken a quick shower. "I aim to please," he said, noticing her struggle. "Hold on," he told her and went over to the wardrobe and pulled out one of his button-down work shirts.

He brought it over to her and knelt down in front of her, holding it up while she slipped her arms in. Then he fastened the buttons for her, assuming correctly that she lacked the fine motor skills to handle it at the moment. Clearly she was headed for sleep if the droopy eyelids and sagging shoulders were any indication.

"I'll just take a little catnap," Aria said tiredly. "You can finish your record since-" The sentence was interrupted by a long yawn.

Ezra nodded, kissing her on the forehead.

"Just a little-" _Yawn,_ and her head was on the pillow. Ezra pulled the wooly green blanket from the back of the armchair and draped it over her. She was out in the blink of an eye.

He didn't turn the music back on, picking up his book instead and reading it until he got hungry. Though Ezra had actually started keeping food in the house since they'd found out she was pregnant, he didn't want to disturb her while trying to fix it into a proper meal, so he left to pick up something for dinner. Aria was still asleep when he returned. He ate alone and did turn the music back on this time. Then when it ended, he pulled out his laptop and tuned into an online stream of a radio station to listen to the news at a low volume, which provided background noise to his writers' block.

One hour bled into another. He was surprised she was sleeping this long, but imagined 6 (or 7, he couldn't tell) rather sizeable consecutive orgasms would knock him on his ass for a while too. Maybe he should have saved his little experiment for another day, he considered. Though he was getting concerned about the time, he loved watching her sleep. It was a comfort seeing her chest rise and fall and nostrils flare slightly as she breathed shallow even silent breaths.

Ezra let her sleep a while longer, glancing at the clock in the corner of the computer screen every other minute. She would probably sleep straight through the night if he let her, and he almost did, coming _this_ close to calling Ella to ask for an exception to the sleepover rule, but Aria had made it very clear they were not to break any of Ella's ground rules, or test the boundaries at all unless absolutely necessary. So he got out of the armchair, leaving the open computer on the ottoman, and gently shook her shoulder, whispering, "Aria."

Aria rolled over a bit and blinked up at his face. "Hi," she smiled. She balled her fists up above her shoulders and stretched.

"Sorry," he said.

"Don't apologize," she said shaking her head and smiling. "Never." How else would anyone want to spend their afternoon? "Whatime is it?" she asked, noticing the lights were all out.

"Quarter to eleven," Ezra said and the look on her face confirmed he had waited too long.

"What!" Aria yelled and shot up, swiveling her head to look out the window, seeing pitch black except for the glow of the lamp behind the curtains of the apartment across the alley. "That's cutting it way too close!" she scolded as she threw the blanket off herself and searched frantically for her clothes. "Why'd you let me sleep this late?"

"You were tired..." he said, pointing out the stack he'd folded and left on the other end of the couch.

"So. what," she snapped as she roughly undid the buttons of the shirt she'd slept in. "Would you have done the same thing 2 months ago?" She didn't wait for him to answer. "No, because you had a healthy fear of getting caught. Hold on to that, because a lot more is at stake now than before."

No he wouldn't have done the same thing, not 2 months ago, or even last month before they knew she was pregnant. One evening they had agreed to give each other back massages, Aria's idea, therefore she went first. The bed was so comfy and his hands were so relaxing, she fell asleep and Ezra had no problem waking her up to let her know it was his turn. But now, despite her insistence he not treat her any differently, he was going to treat her differently because things were different. He was going to be nicer, and more considerate, and put her above all else. Regardless though, he understood why she was mad. "I know, I'm sorry. I won't let it happen again," Ezra said contritely, while simultaneously thinking she had never looked sexier, wearing his shirt, seeing how the hem fell to the middle of her thigh, and how it hung open, the curves of the underside of her breasts peeking through the gap. What he wouldn't give for her to be able to stay the night.

"Don't. Now where the hell is my bra?" Aria stalked around searching for it.

"I couldn't find it, I think it wound up under the cushions."

Aria started digging under the leather and Ezra crouched down to check underneath the piece of furniture, in case he'd missed it before. Nothing but a few dust bunnies under there. Back on his feet, he joked, "You could just wear that."

"Yeah, I'm sure my dad would love that," she said, not laughing. "Found it." Aria let the light blue shirt fall off her shoulders and fastened the hook in front, then spun the bra around and pulled the straps over her arms. She shook open the grey pants and sat to yank them on, grabbed the seams at the knees and tugged, then stood and hopped up and down a few times until she was able to button them.

Ezra couldn't help enjoy watching her bounce, just a little bit. "Do you want me to drive you?" Feeling sleepy and slippery roads were a dangerous combination.

"No, then I'd have to explain why my car is not in the driveway," she replied with a 'do I have to tell you everything?' tone of voice as she pulled the cami over her head.

He knew she wouldn't take him up on it. "The roads are wet, so drive carefully and don't race," Ezra told her. She nodded as she slid into lacy blouse, then picked up her socks. She sat down to wrench on her boots.

While she was stuffing the book into her bag, he realized, "You never ate. I got Chinese," and looked in the direction of the kitchen.

"I'm not hungry," Aria said, pulling her coat off the hook.

"Take some of it home then, I got too much."

"There's no time. It'll keep," she said, but he was already in the kitchen, using a napkin to pick up an egg roll.

"Here," Ezra said, meeting her by the door, and placing it into her hand. "Slow down for just one second. You gotta eat something."

Aria took a bite and actually took the time to chew and swallow it. She took a breath and her somewhat prickly demeanor changed. She said, "I'm sorry. I'm not mad at you. We just have to be careful. I don't want to give them a single extra reason to think we shouldn't be together. I wish it weren't an issue, but it is. It's _the_ issue."

Ezra wished the same thing, to not have to answer to her parents, to not have to send her home every night on their schedule, to not have any mixed feelings about having a baby and constantly worry about how he's changing her life. It would all be so much easier if she were just a little older. "I know. Have I ever put up an argument? I'm clear on the plan."

"We play by the rules, it all works out." Aria had said that once before, the first time she'd filled him in on the plan, before Ella had come over that night. She knew there would be rules once they made their relationship known.

_So optimistic,_ he thought. Meanwhile he was expecting an irate phone call or wrathful pounding on the door when Byron and/or Ella found out one of these days.

"I have to go now," she said, then tried to conceal a yawn.

Ezra wasn't fooled. "Are you sure you're okay to drive?"

"I live like 3 minutes away, I'm fine. See, look," she slapped her cheek a few times, "Awake."

"Okay. Love you," he said as a farewell.

"Love you too," Aria said and gave him a kiss. "See you tomorrow." Tomorrow he would be picking her up at home for a proper date. There was a coffee house in Yarmouth with a live musician on Sunday nights. Aria had already picked out her outfit - a electric pink party dress with lace detailing and gunmetal studs on the shoulders. She had been looking for an excuse to wear it ever since she bought it.

"Text me when you get home or I'm gonna worry about you all night," Ezra said as she headed out the door. He normally wasn't like this, but he was worried about her, god forbid, falling asleep at the wheel. The rational part of him knew how unlikely it would be on such a short journey, the rest of him was overtaken with this unfamiliar protective instinct. He worried all the time now, not just about Aria, about everything.

Nodding, she called, "Night," deciding to find his concern sweet, not annoying.

Aria chucked the eggroll into the trash can in the parking lot, a choice she would later regret, because she really was not hungry. She made it home before curfew with only one minute to spare. Then she texted Ezra, wrestled with her jeans, found some pajamas and was asleep again before her head even hit the pillow.

* * *

Links in my profile to Aria's outfit from 2.14 Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares, and the outfit she'd picked out for the next day from 3.05 That Girl is Poison.

The Greg Laswell album Ezra is listening to is Take A Bow. His other album Three Flights to Alto Nido is really good as well.

If you are unable to leave a review for this chapter, try leaving it for chapter 95 which I also posted today.


	24. Chapter 24

Aria sat on the staircase in Hanna's house with her head against the banister and a cup of soda in her hand.

"You look sleepy," Hanna said, as she took the seat next to her friend.

"Not sleepy, just bored." Aria was actually exhausted from the lengthy school day and all the cheering from the bleachers. She swirled the liquid around in her cup, watching the bubbles rise to the top and pop.

"Are you saying I throw boring parties?"

"No. It's a great party. For a Tuesday night. And your mom chaperoning." They looked over at Ashley refilling a bowl of chips, surrounded by a group of hungry, and loud, teenagers.

"You've got a point."

A brown-haired boy Aria didn't know barreled up the stairs between the two girls, causing Aria to spill her drink all over her shirt, a white graphic tee.

"Watch it!" Hanna yelled. "Did I say you could go up there?"

Without pausing, the boy yelled back, "There's a bathroom up here right?" and didn't wait for an answer.

"Ugh, remind me to refine the guest list next time," Hanna said to Aria before noticing the spill. Aria pulled at the fabric, trying not to let it drip onto her black leggings or the carpet. "Do you want to borrow something to wear?"

"Could I?"

"Course." Hanna took her hand and they went upstairs.

Hanna glared at the boy as they passed him at the top of the stairs.

"Oh, sorry," he said, noticing Aria's shirt.

They ignored his insincere apology and went into Hanna's bedroom and closed the door.

"A sweatshirt or something would be fine," Aria said, as Hanna went rummaging through her closet. Hanna tossed her a silky yellow deep V-neck blouse with tiny ruffles. "This isn't a sweatshirt."

"Try that first," Hanna instructed.

Aria pulled her top of over her head, trying not to let the wet parts touch her face or hair, then balled it up carefully and placed it on the vanity.

"I'm totally jealous right now. Your boobs, look awesome."

Aria let out a laugh. "Thanks… It's a push-up," she lied. Then she pulled the yellow top over her head and looked in the mirror Hanna was standing partially in front of, imagining what she'd look like in a few months, tempted to stuff a pillow under there to get a better idea.

"I knew it would fit. Where'd you get that bra? I think I need one."

"Victoria's Secret," she replied.

"I bet Fitz likes it."

"As a matter of fact, he does," Aria said with a sly look.

"How long have you guys been, you know. Is he…"

"Hanna! I can't believe you'd ask me that!"

"What? I'll tell you all about me and Caleb," Hanna generously offered.

"I don't want to hear it!"

"I just want a few details, come on. Were you guys doing it all along?" Hanna had been dying to get some juicy details out of Aria ever since that 'nooner' text the other day.

"No. We waited."

"'Til when?"

"'Til none of your business!"

"Is he good in bed?"

_You have no idea. _"He's very sweet… when he wants to be," she added with a devilish grin.

"Are you going over there tonight?" Hanna asked, eagerly.

"No, not tonight. I have homework. I'm going home after this."

"Well I'm not letting you waste this outfit on your _parents_. Wear this instead." Hanna shoved a grey printed wide-neck sweatshirt into Aria's hands.

"Thanks.." she said and began to change into it.

Hanna plopped onto the bench at the foot of her bed. "So what are the chances of you accompanying me to a Justin Beiber concert?"

Aria pursed her lips, pretending to think it over. "Slim to none."

"Thought so. Spencer said no way and Emily made something up about a swim meet. On a Saturday night."

Aria was not at all surprised. "What about Caleb?" Aria suggested, sensing his answer would be similar to the girls'.

"He wouldn't be caught dead."

_Sounds about right. _"Mona?"

"Hmm, I could probably convince her…"

"Is she downstairs?" Aria hadn't seen her.

"No, she's at the spa or something. I'll text her."

Aria picked up her t-shirt and asked, "Can we throw this in the wash before the stain sets in?"

"Yeah," Hanna said, hopping up, "come with me."

.

"Mom, is anything in the washing machine? Aria needs to wash this shirt." Hanna held up the ball of white fabric.

"No, but there's a basket full of dirty clothes sitting next to it, feel free to wash them too," Ashley said.

"Nah," Hanna said, turning to walk away.

"By 'feel free,' I mean do it."

Hanna spun around. "We're at a party! You want me to do laundry?"

"It doesn't take any more effort to wash a full load than it does to wash one shirt. And it's a waste of water and electricity."

"Fine," Hanna grumbled.

They passed Emily talking to a bunch of teammates, including Paige McCullers, in the hall on their way to the basement door. "Where are you guys going?" she asked, stepping away from the group.

"To do _laundry_, wanna come?" Hanna said.

"Uh.., okay, why?"

"Some moron spilled soda all over Aria. That moron over there," she pointed.

Emily looked and said, "Oh, he came with Sheila."

"We should make _him_ do the laundry," Hanna said shooting daggers in his direction.

"Come on, Hanna," Aria said, pulling her down the stairs.

As the trio approached the bottom step, Hanna said, "Quiet, Caleb's sleeping."

"What?" Aria whispered. "He's down here?"

"No, I'm just kidding," Hanna laughed.

"I thought you were serious. I was like, are things not working out at Lucas' house? You got him stashed in your basement again?"

"No, he loves it over there. The Gottesmans have practically adopted him, and he and Lucas are besties, like Patrick and Spongebob." The other girls laughed. "Can't say I don't miss finding him down here though."

"You guys make some memories on that couch?" Aria said.

"A _few_," Hanna said. "I thought you didn't want to hear about it."

"I don't."

Hanna dropped the shirt into the washing machine, hopped up onto the dryer, and swung her legs back and forth. Aria picked up a handful of clothes from the basket and threw the items into the machine.

"Hanna," Emily said. "You're gonna let Aria do _your_ laundry?"

"If she really wants to… Who am I to stop her?"

"Hanna!"

"Emily!" she mimicked.

"You are ridiculous. Aria, I'll do it, you look tired," Emily offered.

"Thanks, Em."

Aria perched herself on the arm of the sofa while Emily took over loading the machine.

"You can sit on it, you know," Hanna said to Aria.

Surveying the saggy cushions behind her, she said, "Uh, I'm good."

"What, you and _Fitzypoo_ never did it on the couch?"

"Maybe," she said coyly. _Maybe is right._

Emily had not been filled in on the details of Aria's relationship either. She assumed they were having sex, especially after Aria had casually described multiple sex dreams to her last month or so, not to mention the love bites she had spotted months prior to that, but didn't know for sure until Aria just said it. "How is your mom with all this? Does she know you guys are that serious?" Emily asked, twisting a knob on a panel. The basin started filling with water.

_She'll know in a few months or so,_ Aria thought. "I'm sure she figures. She's not stupid and she knows I've spent time at his apartment."

"But no idea how much time," Hanna said.

"Not a clue," Aria shook her head slightly.

"What made you guys decide to come clean anyway?" Hanna asked. "Last I thought, you were planning to keep it a secret forever, then I get that text, I nearly fell over." Aria texted her friends the night she told her parents about Ezra. They were _very_ surprised.

"Me too," Emily agreed.

_It was a bit of a time-sensitive issue. _"We were sick of hiding. And we figured 2 months was a respectable amount of time to claim to be dating before proclaiming our love for each other. It seems plausible, right?"

"Yeah," Hanna shrugged. "They bought it, right?" she asked rhetorically.

"Yeah, it does. I'm surprised you didn't think of it sooner," Emily said, pouring in a capful of detergent.

"Me too." Aria wondered if she would have come up with this idea had she not been forced to. Her parents were fairly open-minded people, but they would not have taken kindly to their friend Ezra engaging in a secret relationship with their daughter while he was her teacher. It would not have been easy for them to accept that, if they would have been able to accept it at all. "Not that we could have followed through with it any sooner. We had to pretend to've been friends first," Aria explained. "It wasn't only that though. _A_ seemed determined to out us. We sort of took away the power by doing it ourselves."

"Did you tell him?" Hanna asked, suddenly panicked.

"No," Aria shook her head vigorously.

"Cuz you said 'we,'" Emily said, as concerned as Hanna.

"No," Aria repeated. "I'd never do that without talking to you guys first."

The other girls relaxed.

"You know, A could still tell your parents you lied," Hanna said, as gently as she could manage.

_A could tell my parents a lot of things. _"I know."

"_Then_ what are you gonna do?"

"Deal with it. What else can I do? We gotta roll with the punches."

"You seem awfully upbeat about this," Hanna said questioningly.

"Well I haven't been threatened directly yet." A troubling thought occurred to Aria and she said, "Wait, have you? Is that why you're asking?"

"No."

"Then I'm not gonna waste my time thinking about," she said, relieved. "We'll cross that bridge if and when we come to it."

"Okay then."

Emily closed the lid and Hanna hopped down. "Back to the party?"

"Would you guys mind if I head home? I am actually really tired and I've still got work to do."

"Sure."

"Of course. I'll bring your shirt to school tomorrow," Hanna said.

"K, thanks."

The three girls climbed the stairs and said good night.

* * *

[As always, comments are greatly appreciated! ]


	25. Chapter 25

Happy Mother's Day all!

* * *

A few days later, Aria made herself a cup of coffee while Ella gathered up some papers, preparing to leave for school. She had been cutting back on the caffeine ever since she found she was pregnant, technically even before, but continued to keep up appearances. Not drinking coffee every day would be a sure signal something was up.

_Achoo,_ Aria sneezed and automatically pressed the back of her hand to her nose to subdue the residual tingling feeling.

"Have you started taking anything for those allergies?" Ella asked. Last month, Aria had been sneezing like crazy. Ella felt her head and asked if she was coming down with anything. Aria said no, she thought it was just allergies, though she'd never really had allergies before. Ella told her it's not uncommon to randomly develop a seasonal allergy and told her to take an anti-histamine if it got any worse. Aria agreed, but never bothered; she could put up with a little sneezing. Little did she know at the time, sneezing can be an early sign of pregnancy.

"No, I didn't bother, I think they're going away," she told her mother, and it was the truth.

Ella shrugged. "Are you sure you don't want to celebrate your birthday today?" she asked. "I can come home early, we can go out to eat."

"I'm sure," Aria said.

"Did you make any plans?"

"The girls have something planned. They haven't told me exactly what, but we're supposed to sleep over Spencer's." Another lie. After months of lying to her mother, years actually, the lies flowed so freely from her mouth, it was becoming second nature. Aria didn't like it, but knew there were certain situations during which you must lie.

Ella gave her a doubting look.

"Yes, Spencer's. You can call her mom if you want." Veronica would confirm their story, though she doubted they would even see Spencer's mother since her work schedule kept her so busy.

"Well have fun. Call to check in," Ella said, making her way toward the back door. "I'll pick up cake and ice cream for tomorrow night."

"Could you get the one with the layer of pudding and cookie crumbs on top?" Aria allowed herself to ask. She really wanted a slice of that chocolate ice cream cake and knew it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to make such a request under these circumstances.

"Okay," her mom agreed. She had already been planning to look for that one since she knew it was Aria's favorite from the time she was little.

"Thanks, love you, bye," Aria said, and Ella was out the door.

Aria was grateful her mother generally had to be at school earlier than she did. And also grateful her parents' bedroom was on the first floor and she only had to share the upstairs bathroom with Mike. The morning sickness hadn't been too bad, but it was getting worse. After skipping dinner last weekend, she had discovered that going to bed on an empty stomach ensured waking up feeling nauseated, so she would make sure she ate something before falling asleep at Spencer's tonight, hungry or not. It wouldn't be the worst thing for one of the girls to catch on to her secret, but Aria preferred to tell them on her own timetable.

Aria took plenty of precautions to make sure her parents didn't suspect this pregnancy, hoping to put off the announcement for another few weeks at least, so they could get used to her and Ezra being a couple first. Ella didn't like it, but was allowing it, much to Aria's relief. Sneaking around wasn't fun anymore, not when so much was at stake. Byron was not happy about it at all. Aria eavesdropped on their arguments. They hadn't been arguing the past few days, but Aria could sense the tension. She hadn't seen her father much at all since he found out. Neither had Ezra, which was probably a good thing at this point. They had become fairly good friends, work friends at least, since Ezra started teaching at Hollis. Aria hoped they would eventually get back to that place after everything was out in the open, but knew things would probably get worse before they got better.

Mike had been picked up by a teammate earlier for lacrosse practice, so Aria was home alone. She grabbed the bottle marked Vitamin C from her purse and swallowed one of the massive pills with water. She had switched the bottles just in case anyone happened to go rummaging around her bag.

Earlier in the week, Aria and Ezra went to the bookstore and bought a ton of baby books. They had read the pamphlets the nurse gave them right away and decided they needed much more information in order to feel remotely prepared. Since Aria couldn't safely bring any of the books home, she read them whenever she was over Ezra's place, which actually wasn't much this week, unfortunately. She had told her guidance counselor she wanted to start tutoring other students because it would look good on college applications. That was true, but she also wanted to start saving a little money, and needed an excuse to spend less time at home, away from parental scrutiny. She spent a few hours after school every day helping other students with their homework, then tried to sneak in a nap if she could. On Tuesday, she went to Emily's swim meet and then to Hanna's house with her friends and teammates to celebrate the win. Today, Aria planned to go straight to Ezra's after school.

.

Ezra wasn't home when she let herself in. Aria picked up one of the baby books, but couldn't keep her eyes open long enough to read a full page.

Ezra was quiet enough when he came in, he didn't wake her. When he saw her sleeping there, he stopped in his tracks and just watched her breathe for a moment. _So beautiful_, he thought. Then he went into the kitchen and put down the package he was carrying under his arm. Quietly, he opened the newspaper, removed the contents from the cardboard box, and wrapped a sheet around it. Then he rummaged through a drawer and found some scotch tape and a recycled bow to stick on the top.

Aria stirred at the sound of the drawer closing, stretched a bit, then looked around. She smiled when she saw him standing there. He came over and sat next to her on the sofa. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," he said quietly, putting his arm around her. The leather squeaked as he sat.

"It's okay," she said through a yawn. "What time is it?"

"About 6."

"6! I slept the whole afternoon!"

"So what? You need your rest," he said, placing a hand on her stomach.

She put her hand over his. "Yeah, seems that way. This little peanut is sapping all my energy."

Ezra brushed the hair from her face and kissed her forehead. Aria rested her head on his chest, then noticed the present sitting next to him.

"What's that?" she asked, knowing exactly what it was. Not _exactly,_ but the flat square shape gave it away.

He picked it up and handed it to her. "Happy Birthday," he said with a smile.

"Excellent wrapping job," she said disingenuously, flipping the thing around to find the uneven seam. "You should do this professionally."

"You know you love it."

"Yeah, I do." She tore open her present, dropping the wrapping on the floor. "Ooo, how did you get this? I thought it wasn't released 'til next week!" He had given her Sigur Rós' latest album on vinyl, one of her favorite musicians.

"I preordered it. I was worried it wouldn't get here in time, but it was waiting for me downstairs just now."

"Thank you. I love it." Aria gave him a kiss.

"There's more," he said.

"There's more?" she asked, with an eyebrow raised.

"Well, it's not so much another gift as it is an idea. And you can have it if you want it."

Intrigued, she asked, "What is it?"

"I was talking to Pete, the guy upstairs, the other day and he said he and his family are moving at the end of the summer. I talked to the landlord and he said if I wanted the apartment, I could have it, he wouldn't put it on the market. And since he knows me, he wouldn't raise the rent like he was planning if there were new tenants. It's just like mine, but with two bedrooms."

"So you were serious about getting a bigger place?"

"Well, my head was sort of all over the place when I said that, but yeah, I think it's kind of necessary, don't you?" One of the first things Ezra had thought when she told him she was pregnant was '_where the hell are we gonna put the crib?' _before he even knew she wanted to keep the baby.

"It would be nice…" she admitted, thinking three people, even if one of them was very small, were too many to live comfortably in an apartment this size. "Can you afford it though?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't be looking if we couldn't afford it. Pete said we could stop by any time to take a look. We don't have to stay in this building though, we can look someplace else. I just thought it would be convenient."

"I like the idea. Let's go take a look," she said pushing herself onto her feet.

"Now?" he asked. "What time are we meeting your friends?"

"8. We've got time."

.

They knocked at 4B and the couple's 4-year-old little girl answered the door. Aria crouched down to her level and said, "Hi, what's your name?"

"Janie," the little girl giggled, then ran away. Her father, a tall dark-skinned man, scooped her up and said, "What did I tell you about opening the door, squirt?" She giggled some more until he put her down.

"Ezra," Pete said amiably. "Are you here to check out the apartment?"

He nodded. "If it's not a bad time."

"Not at all. Come on in."

They stepped inside the apartment, which was similar to Ezra's, but brighter, and furnished quite differently. The clutter didn't consist of books, rather toys, scattered all around.

"This is my girlfriend, Aria," he introduced.

"Aria, what a beautiful name," Pete said, sticking out his hand for Aria to shake.

"Thank you. It's nice to meet you. Your daughter is adorable."

"Yeah, she's cute. We'll probably keep her around," he said jokingly.

While Pete showed them around, Janie kept trying to get Aria's attention, trying to engage her in a game of hide-and-seek, but clearly not understanding the rules of the game. Aria humored her, pretending not to see her covering her eyes standing over in the corner. She showed Aria her favorite doll, a faerie named Bree, and pulled her into a brief game of make believe while Pete and Ezra talked. Ezra watched them out of the corner of his eye wondering if he was getting a glimpse of the future.

On their way out, they thanked Pete for his time and waved goodbye to Janie, who was now partially hiding behind the curtains in the living room, back to hide-and-seek for the moment.

"What do you think?" Ezra asked on their way back downstairs.

"I think it's perfect."

"I'll talk to the landlord tomorrow then."

She put her arm around his waist. After a few seconds, Aria declared, "I'm hungry."

"Let's eat. What do you want?"

Aria gave it some thought. "I want… pizza. With green peppers…. and pineapple."

Ezra gave her a crazy look.

"What, is that gross?"


	26. Chapter 26

(Part 1 of 3)

At 8, they pulled into the lot behind a bar in Brookhaven. It was Hanna's idea to go there and Aria agreed because it was pretty out of the way. It was unlikely they would run into anybody they knew.

"This won't be too weird, will it?" Aria asked as they strode through the parking lot. She wore a black and white striped dress, belted in the middle, with a big brooch pinned near her collarbone, while Ezra wore a casual black button-down and jeans.

"It'll probably be pretty weird, but it's okay. I want to meet your friends, you know, not as their teacher. Did you tell them about-"

"No, not yet. I'm waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

"I don't know. The right time." She didn't want to explain her real reasons. Their secrets had a tendency to come out one way or another. She hoped she could keep this particular secret off the radar as long as possible. Also, even though she loved her friends and knew they would be understanding, she didn't want to hear any judgments about her life choices. Keeping it to herself felt safer. As soon as she started telling people, everything would blow up and become overwhelming. Right now, it was their little secret, something they shared only with each other and Aria wanted to hold onto that a little while longer.

"Aria! Aria!" her friends called, waving her over to their table. "Happy Birthday!" Aria smiled and pulled Ezra behind her to the round bistro table in the middle of the room. Spencer, Emily, Hanna, and Caleb slid their seats over to make room for 2 more chairs.

"How long have you been here?" Aria yelled into Emily's ear so she could hear her over the loud music. The loud karaoke music… _This night should be interesting_, she thought.

"We just got here. Perfect timing!" Emily shouted back.

"Hello.. everybody.." Ezra said, rather lamely with a little wave.

"Hello," they all responded in unison, with varied expressions on their faces.

Spencer pulled some chairs over from an empty table nearby and yelled, "Sit down!"

Ezra did as he was told and sat next to Caleb. While Aria took the seat next to Ezra, Caleb leaned over and said, "I don't think we've ever officially met. I'm Caleb, Hanna's boyfriend."

"Ezra," Ezra said and shook his hand.

Hanna was entertained by this and couldn't help looking at apparently-not-so-uptight-English-teacher Mr. Fitz sitting across her table at a bar.

"So… Hanna," Ezra started, "Aria said you picked this place. Have you been here before?"

"No. I heard they don't card here."

Ezra nodded understandingly.

Aria, who was listening, asked, "What if they do card you?"

"Isn't that what Fitz is here for?" Hanna asked. Ezra was already breaking all of Ella's ground rules by being there tonight. They were out in public, acting like a couple, surrounded by alcohol, keeping secrets, and would probably wind up breaking curfew. He started planning how to phrase that he wouldn't be buying them all drinks tonight when Hanna said, "I'm kidding!"

Ezra let out a relieved laugh, as did Aria.

"That's what fake IDs are for!" Hanna proclaimed. "Did you bring yours?" she asked Aria.

"No… I didn't."

"That's okay. I'll get you a drink. What do you want?"

"I'm gonna stick to water tonight."

"What! It's your birthday!" Hanna exclaimed.

Searching for an excuse, Aria remembered, "My mom made me promise no drinking. Plus somebody's gotta be the designated driver. How did you guys get here?"

"I drove," Hanna said, "but we've got it covered. Caleb has graciously agreed to be our designated driver tonight, isn't that right?"

"That's right," he confirmed.

"Well, Caleb, you can take the night off if you want," Aria asserted.

"If you insist…"

Hanna grabbed Caleb's wrist as he started to stand up and asked, "Aria, are you sure?"

"She made me swear, Hann."

"Okay, then. Be right back!" Hanna and Caleb wandered off towards the bar.

"Soo…" Spencer said, "let me see the ring…" She reached out for Aria's hand. "It's so pretty! I helped pick it out, you know. Did he tell you?"

Aria didn't wear the ring around the house or to school, though she always kept it close. This was the first time Spencer had seen it. Spencer proclaimed, "You did good, Mr. Fitz," and grinned at him to let him know she said it on purpose. Then she pulled Aria's hand across the table for Emily to see. "It's really beautiful," Emily said, but Aria wasn't listening. All she was thinking was "_Does she know? Does she know?_" But then common sense took over. _She couldn't possibly know. But she helped pick out the ring?_

"Nooo… he didn't…" Aria said accusingly, turning to look at Ezra.

"It's true," he admitted. "I asked Spencer for help finding you something because I didn't know where to start. She pointed me in the right direction, but I promise, I picked out this ring," he said, taking her hand and holding it up between them, "all by myself."

Hanna returned to the table, sipping a cocktail, and, seeing the glint of the goldish ring on Aria's finger, and the manner in which Ezra was holding her hand, she cried out, "Omigod, are you guys, like, engaged!"

Aria shot that notion down with a resounding "Noo…," which Ezra clarified by saying, "It was an early birthday present."

"Awww," Hanna said. "You guys are the cutest."

Caleb found his seat and set down two beers, one in front of Ezra. Trying to embrace the oddness of the situation, Ezra said, "Thanks," and picked up the beer, a hoppy Belgian import; the kid had good taste.

"Cheers, man," Caleb said and lightly tapped the bottles together.

"We'll be right back," Emily said and left the table with Spencer to take their turn at the bar.

"So how did you two kids meet?" Caleb asked, facetiously.

"At a bar," the couple answered simultaneously, but with two distinct tones of voice, Aria's matter-of fact and Ezra's with less conviction. Aria rolled her eyes at Ezra.

Surprised, he asked, "Oh. Really?" Hanna kicked him under the table.

"You didn't tell him?" Aria asked Hanna.

"I told him the fake story. I didn't know I could tell him the real one!" The maniac only drilled it into her head like a thousand times. She practically believed it herself.

"Of course you can!" she she shouted across the table so her voice was heard over the speakers. Then leaning in Caleb's direction, she stated, "Caleb, we met in a bar."

"Hey, I don't judge," he said coolly, holding his hands up.

"This guy sucks!" Hanna declared. A 40-year-old man was on stage singing, and dancing, to a Katy Perry song. "We gotta get some talent on that stage. Who's going first? Fitz? Come on, sing a little Stones? Some Beatles?"

"How _old_ do you think I am?"

They all laughed.

"Seriously though. You wanna go first?"

"Not a chance. Leave me outta this." He folded his arms and sat back in the chair. "Nobody said anything about karaoke."

"Okay… We'll see…" Hanna said duplicitously. "How 'bout you Aria?" Then turning back toward Ezra, putting the side of her hand to her cheek like one might when they're whispering a secret, Hanna said, "Girl can sing. She's got a set of pipes on her."

"I know," he said. Then, before the double entendre could register, quickly added, "I've heard her sing," and immediately regretted being so eager to fit in with her friends that he accidentally brought up a sore subject. He had intentionally never raised the topic of her lovely singing voice because it would force him to remember it was something she had shared with Noel Khan, a meddling weaselly jerk, and not him, her boyfriend, now of 9 months.

"When?" Aria asked. She couldn't recall ever singing in front of him.

"I heard you, that one time… at school, I walked in…" _Heartbroken._

"Oh, right," Aria said, recalling the memory, not exactly a happy one.

Hanna, extremely intrigued by the the crypticness of this interchange, tried not to let the curiosity get the better of her. Instead of prying for details, she forced herself to get up, saying "be right back" and bringing Caleb with her. She yelled in his ear, loud enough for them all to hear, "I'm totally putting his name down!"

"She's not right?" Ezra asked Aria.

"No, don't worry," Aria assured.

"So how am I doing so far?"

"Not bad. Not bad at all," Aria said and pulled him in for a kiss.

"We're in public," he said, not as a warning they should stop with the PDA, but as a statement of fact. He put his hand on her knee and squeezed it.

With a bright smile, she said, "I know, isn't it great?"

* * *

[The dress Aria is wearing is the one she wears in 2.17 The Blond Leading the Blind. Link in profile.

I hope no one minds I don't always describe what they're wearing. It's not really my writing style, and most of the time, it doesn't really matter. I'd rather you just picture them wearing whatever you want. Sometimes I'm gonna base it on outfits from 2b though cuz most of her clothes are cute. ]


	27. Chapter 27

(Part 2 of 3)

Spencer and Emily returned with drinks, and brought Aria a glass of water so she wouldn't have to get up. Hanna came back as well, a few moments later, with another drink in her hand, something pink this time. She announced, "Caleb's in the bathroom," as she climbed the rungs of the tall chair backwards, trying not to break a heel.

"That's nice, Hann," Emily said, sarcastically.

In need of the ladies' room, Aria said, "I'll be right back," and headed toward the back of the building where she assumed she would find it..

The remaining foursome sat in an awkward silence. The girls all sort of watched Ezra, observing him like a scientific anomaly, Hanna not even bothering to look away occasionally like the other two. He took a sip of his beer hoping when he put it down, no one would be staring anymore, but they were.

"Sooo…" he started. "I've been wondering this a long time… Which one of you is A?"

_What the fuck! _the girls all thought, except Emily, who thought, _What the hell?_ Shocked and bewildered, Hanna spit out her drink and Spencer started choking on hers. Emily, whose eyes were bugging out, started patting Spencer's back to help. Hanna grabbed some napkins and started wiping up the mess. None of them looked up.

Sensing he said something wrong, he tried to clarify. "One of you must have known when we first started dating. Aria got a text from A… I've just always wondered who sent it…" They all stared blankly at him. "Not that it matters… anymore… never mind." He took another sip of his beer, wondering what he said could have caused this bizarre reaction.

The three girls exchanged glances, telepathically considering their options. He didn't seem to actually know about A, which was good, especially since Aria had promised not to tell him. "I-It was me," Hanna spoke up. "It was a joke." In her buzzing mind, she hoped this would be enough to satisfy him.

"Oh." Ezra looked down while this silence lasted an eternity. Why not ask them about school? Or the weekend? Or their drinks? Or baseball, or the weather, or _anything_ else! Ezra reminded himself thinking before speaking was usually a good plan.

"What'd I miss?" Aria asked, returning to her seat.

"Not much," Hanna said. "We were just giving him the talk, you know, 'you hurt her, we kill you,' yada yada yada."

Aria let out a strained laugh, sensing the odd tension at the table, wondering if that's really what was going on.

The look Hanna gave Ezra told him she was serious. He didn't doubt her friends would make him feel pain if he caused her any, or that she would do the same for them.

A perky college-aged waitress with a mane of tight permed ringlets glided up to the table carrying a tray of the appetizers they had ordered earlier. She set the basket of nachos and plate of french fries on the table, and said, "Hanna? You guys are up next."

"Em, come on, we're up next!" Hanna said, tugging on her arm.

"What? What are we singing?"

"I picked the _perfect_ song," Hanna said, dragging Emily from the table and covertly winking at Ezra.

"Should I be scared?" Ezra asked Aria.

Confused, she asked, "Why?"

"No reason." Maybe he'd imagined it.

Caleb, who had been "networking" with some shady dudes by the dart boards, and just passed the girls, came back to the table with another beer in his hand.

"This is gonna be great!" he said, taking his seat, and rubbing his hands together. He was obviously in the loop.

Aretha Franklin's "RESPECT" finally ended, and the drunk girl not doing the song justice exited the stage. Hanna and Emily got up there and adjusted the microphones while the intro played.

"Ohh…. ohh noo…" Aria said, stifling a laugh.

"This one's for you," Hanna said from stage, pointing at Ezra.

"Did you know she picked this?" Spencer asked Aria when she recognized the song.

"No!"

Caleb sat back and folded his arms, ready for the show.

"_They're gonna clean up your looks / With all the lies in the books / To make a citizen out of you_," Hanna and Emily sang in unison, Emily staring at the prompter so she didn't mess up.

"What song is this?" Ezra asked no one in particular.

Caleb, realizing he needed a record of this once-in-a-lifetime performance, pulled his phone out and started recording.

"You'll see," Aria said, patting his hand.

Ezra waited, nervously, listening to the lyrics wondering what was so funny. The song seemed very catchy, even if they weren't singing it particularly well. Aria gave his hand a little squeeze.

"_They said all TEENAGERS scare the living SHIT out of me / They could care less as long as someone'll bleed / So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose / Maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me!_"

Ezra's face lit up, finally getting the joke, and laughing at the apropos song choice.

"Your friends are funny," Ezra said, leaning into Aria, and continuing to watch Hanna and Emily have fun on stage. He laughed when they missed their cue for the third verse and every time they tried to "strike a violent pose." For the last 2 verses, they got everybody clapping and singing along, including Ezra, who had never even heard the song before. At the end, Hanna and Emily bowed and curtseyed to their public and ran back to their seats in fits of laughter.

"So what'd you think?" Hanna asked at the same time Emily said, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

"Don't be sorry. You guys were great!"

"I'm glad you liked it, cuz you're up after this guy," Hanna laughed, pointing at the drunk frat guy who just started singing "I'm Too Sexy."

"Are you serious?"

"Dead serious. You should get back there. Go pick a song."

He looked at everyone looking at him, trying to gauge his reaction. Then he looked at Aria who sort of shrugged, putting her hands up as if to say 'what do you want me to do about it.'

"Okay. I see how it is," he said, standing. He put his hands on Aria's shoulders and whispered, "I may never forgive you for this," into her ear before kissing her on the head and departing.

"You guys… that's a little mean…" Aria said.

"We are at a karaoke bar! Everyone has to sing!" Hanna said, defending her actions.

"Are you having fun?" Emily asked.

Aria nodded and dipped a french fry in ketchup. She really was having a great time.

Caleb put his phone down on the table, making sure it was within reach for when Ezra started singing.

"Did you get that on video!" Hanna asked excitedly.

"Yup. I even got a reaction shot of Fitz's face during the chorus."

"Awesome! _This_ is why I love you," Hanna exclaimed, planting a kiss on his face.

The drunk guy stumbled towards his cheering friends as Ezra took the stage. The music was slow.

"_Wise men say only fools rush in_." He wasn't bad. He was clearly nervous, and no Elvis, but he could hold his own. And yes, Ezra saw the irony in picking song recorded earlier than the ones Hanna suggested.

"_But I can't help falling in love with you_."

"Awwww…" the girls all said, turning to Aria. She gave them a quick glance, then looked back at Ezra, who was looking only at her, excluding glances at the monitor. Her eyes got a little moist, but didn't develop into full tears until he sang, "_Take my hand, take my whole life too / For I can't help falling in love with you_" and he reached his hand out toward her.

"Don't cry, Aria…" Emily said.

"Yeah, he's not _that _bad," Hanna added. Aria couldn't help giggling and wiped away a fallen tear. She sensed a camera in her face and stuck her tongue out at it.

At the end, Ezra hopped off the stage and jogged back to the table.

"So, do I pass?" his question aimed at Hanna.

Wishing she could say no, but knowing she much give credit where credit is due, she said, "Yes… You pass… For now."

When he sat down, he rubbed Aria's knee. She leaned over and whispered in his ear, "good choice," and kissed him on the cheek. He leaned over to her and whispered, "I'm glad you liked it. I meant every word." Aria suddenly wished they didn't have an audience.

* * *

[In case you don't know the songs from this scene:

Hanna and Emily - Teenagers by My Chemical Romance

Ezra - Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley

Links are in my profile.

I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. It's one of my faves (in combination with Parts 1 and 3). I would give anything to see a scene like this on the show! ]


	28. Chapter 28

(Part 3 of 3)

More drinks were ordered and consumed, as well as snacks. Caleb took his turn up on stage, singing the rock song, "Kryptonite." Hanna made sure to record the whole thing in case he sucked, but he was actually really good. They were all impressed and gave him a round of applause.

When Aria got up to use the bathroom again, she caught Caleb at the bar on the way back to the table. She told him she had a song in mind and wanted him to sing backup.

In their absence, Ezra made _normal_ conversation with the girls, and they bombarded him with personal questions, most of which he refused to answer. The drunker they got, the more easily distracted they became, making it no trouble at all for Ezra to steer the conversation until they devolved into hysterics at the most unfunny remark. Aria asked what was funny when she returned, and Ezra could honestly not say. Emily, practically in tears from laughing so hard, yelled, "He said monsters! You said monsters!" and pointed at Ezra to make sure he knew she was talking to him.

"I.. did not." Ezra tried really hard to remember himself say anything about monsters, but it never happened.

Without bothering to look up from the fascinatingly soggy coaster in her hand, as if she was the most levelheaded person at the table, Spencer interjected, "Yes you did," even though nobody asked her.

Ezra turned to Aria, his eyes saying, 'I haven't the foggiest idea what they are talking about.'

Hanna helpfully explained, "You said 'the monsters at the grille are food.' We all heard you."

Emily nodded her head in obvious vigorous agreement, and Spencer nodded too, completely disinterested.

"Oh!" Ezra exclaimed. He finally got it. "I said 'pasta at The Grille is good.'"

Aria snickered while Hanna and Emily tried to replay the original sentence in their brains and Spencer shook her head no, to herself, not even trying to convince anyone. She heard what she heard.

Spencer sang next. She chose "Fields of Gold," by Sting, a very slow song. She sang it well for someone who also almost fell off the stool on stage. Twice.

"Spence, that was depressing," Emily chided when she was done.

"Yeah," Hanna agreed, stirring the ice in her latest empty cocktail. "Way to bring us all down."

Caleb, on his third or fourth adult beverage, nodded in agreement.

Spencer looked to Ezra hopefully, a the most endearing puppy dog expression on her face. "You were very good," he said politely.

He was still nursing the second beer he hd all night. "Yes you were," Aria agreed, patting her hand.

Hanna, pretending to whisper a secret again, told Ezra, "Spencer gets weird when she's drunk." Last time, Spencer spent a half hour attempting to recite the alphabet backwards, long after anyone was interested in hearing her try anymore.

"I'm not wei-rr-dd," Spencer tried to argue, but was distracted by the condensation on her glass.

"What're you gonna sing?" Emily slurred at Aria.

"It's a surprise," she answered.

"I don't like surprises," Emily said, making a face.

"You'll like this one," Aria promised. Then she stood up and tapped Caleb on the shoulder, who followed her backstage. Ezra looked around, wondering if the girls knew why she needed Caleb for her song, but no one was paying attention to him anymore. If someone had told him in September he would be singing karaoke with a group of drunk students before the end of the school year, he'd have laughed in their face. If someone had told him he'd also have gotten one of those students pregnant, he would have had that person committed. Yet, here he was, possibly the most surreal night of his life, and he was truly enjoying himself.

A quick beat of drums started playing and some extra lights were flipped to illuminate the stage. The sheer fabric of Aria's dress swayed as she reached her mark. She stood up front, tapping her hand on her thigh to keep time, glowing under the bright lights, while Caleb stood off to the side adjusting his microphone.

"_Give me a second I, / I need to get my story straight_"

Her voice rang out like a bell. Everyone's heads perked up a little bit.

"_My friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the empire state_"

By the end of the first verse, everyone's eyes were on Aria, clearly the best singer anyone had heard all night.

"_Tonight / We are young / So let's set the world on fire / We can burn brighter than the sun_"

Caleb harmonized with her during the chorus. Ezra was entranced, as was everyone else in the room. He had heard her sing that one time, but had no idea how talented she really was. She commanded a presence on that stage, hitting every note and never missing a beat. _Is anyone recording this?_ he thought and looked to see Hanna with the phone in her hand.

The mood in the room was lifted considerably. Caleb sang backup on the later verses, making this the most complex impromptu performance all night, and probably in the history of this bar. They sounded incredible together.

"_So if by the time the bar closes / And you feel like falling down / I'll carry you home tonight_"

The crowd erupted in cheers and applause. Aria was taken aback then started beaming at the crowd's reaction. After nearly 20 seconds of this, she didn't know what else to do, so she ran back to her seat. Ezra grabbed her first and gave her a huge hug, lifting her up off the ground, shouting, "You were amazing! You are amazing!" The applause died down as the other patrons started murmuring to each other how fantastic that performance was.

"Let's hear it for the birthday girl!" Caleb said into the mic. Hanna still had the camera rolling. The applause and cheering started again. "_Happy Birthday to you_," Caleb started singing. "_Happy Birthday to you_," Ezra and the girls joined in. "_Happy Birthday, dear Aria_," the whole bar was singing now. "_Happy Birthday to you_." The waitress brought out a plate of cupcakes with a single lit candle stuck in the middle. Spencer had prearranged this with the staff earlier and they recognized their cue. Aria was overwhelmed by the attention and the thoughtfulness of her friends. Ezra stood behind her with his arms around her waist as she closed her eyes, and made a wish, and blew out the candle.

.

Hanna, Spencer and Emily sat in the backseat while Aria drove Hanna's car to Spencer's. Caleb sat in the passenger seat. The girls, still pretty drunk, were trying to sing along to the radio, a Rhianna song, so off-key, it was almost painful to listen to.

Aria was lost in thought, thinking about how at her next birthday, she'd have with a 4-month-old on her lap, when Caleb spoke.

"You're a really great singer." He didn't have any idea how great when she approached him to sing back up. In fact he thought she was shy and that he would wind up singing the whole song himself.

"Thank you," she said.

"Have you ever thought about doing something with your voice?" Caleb asked.

"What, like, professionally?" she turned to ask him.

He nodded.

"No. I haven't," she answered truthfully, with her eyes back on the road.

"You should. You have talent." It was clear during their first song and even clearer during their second. A little while after the cupcakes had been devoured, a tan girl, unquestionably plastered by the way she stumbled up to their table, requested they sing the song "Closing Time," not because the bar was closing yet, but because it was her favorite song and they sounded so good, she wanted to hear them sing it. "_Uhh.. sure,_" Aria had agreed, then took the stage and killed it.

Aria smiled. While it was nice to hear, it wasn't a dream of hers to sing. And pursuing a singing career at this moment in her life was not an option.

"I was thinking..., we should write a song together."

"You guys should _totally_ write a song together!" Hanna exclaimed from the backseat.

"Totally. Totally, totally." Spencer and Emily agreed.

Aria laughed, and Caleb didn't. "Oh, what, are you serious?"

"Yeah. You write, don't you?"

"I write stories and stuff sometimes, sometimes poems."

"That's perfect. I'm good with music, but I'm terrible at lyrics. We could work together and make a song."

"Do iiitttt!" Hanna encouraged. "It'd be soo goooodd!"

"Yeah," Aria said, considering his suggestion. "We could do that. It might be fun."

* * *

[Links to all songs from this scene in my profile.

Caleb - Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down (my second choice was for Caleb to sing Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind, but I'm not sure he could hit some of those high notes )

Spencer - Fields of Gold by Sting

Aria w/ Caleb - We Are Young by Fun. (yes, I know this song didn't exist yet. I don't care.) and Closing Time by Semisonic]


	29. Chapter 29

Aria awoke the next day at the sound of the kettle whistling on Ezra's stove. She heard him mutter something under his breath and slide the kettle to another burner. He poured the hot liquid, then glanced over at her on the sofa, saw her moving and kicked himself for waking her again.

"I made you a cup of tea," he said softly, sitting next to her and setting it on the coffee table. "I didn't mean to let it whistle," he apologized.

"It's okay. I can't sleep all day," she said, lifting herself up to a seated position. She had slept in this morning with the rest of the girls, who had been advantageously hungover. Aria reached over for the steamy mug and brought it up to her lips, but didn't take a sip. Wrinkling her nose, she asked, "Ugh, did you put honey in this?"

"Yeah, why?"

She shoved the mug back onto the table and ran to the bathroom. Even though she shut the door, Ezra immediately followed her in there, and held back her hair while she retched into the toilet. Breathing heavily and sitting back, she said, "Sorry," a little embarrassed to have just done that in front of him..

He reached over for some tissues and said, "You have nothing to apologize for. If anything, I should be apologizing."

Ezra wasn't used to seeing her this way. He hadn't been around for the other bouts of morning sickness and she always downplayed the reality of it around him.

"You couldn't have known. I do usually take honey in my tea." _On those rare occasions I actually drink tea, _she thought while wiping her mouth. "I guess the peanut doesn't like it." They had taken to calling the baby 'the peanut' since that's what it probably looked like at this stage. Aria also felt safer referring to it in code.

"That's not what I mean. I'm sorry you have to go through this. I'm sorry you're in this position in the first place."

"It's not your fault," she said.

"Of course it is," he insisted. "We should have waited."

Aria thought of the first time. The idea he wished it never happened made her feel sick again. She looked up at him, hurt. "You would take it back? All of it?"

"I…"

She wouldn't wait for him to finish that sentence. "I'm leaving," she responded and pushed off the edge of the tub and stood up.

"No. No!" he cried, scrambling to his feet. "I wouldn't take it back. Of course not." He ran after her and grabbed her arm. "It's just… it kills me to see you like this, knowing _my_ lapse in judgment is why you're dealing with this now."

She yanked her arm away and headed for the door. It felt like her world was falling apart with no warning.

"Aria, wait!"

She swung around and yelled angrily, "Is that all I am to you? A lapse in judgment?"

"Nooo! That's not what I meant! It's coming out all wrong."

"Tell me what you mean then," she demanded impatiently, "because what I'm hearing is you wish we never slept together and you wish I weren't pregnant."

Ezra placed his hands on her shoulders. "You know that's not true. I don't _regret_ anything, but if I had shown some restraint…"

"When you say you, you really mean me, right? Because you showed plenty of restraint."

He grasped her upper arms. "You're not listening. All I'm saying is maybe if we had waited, we wouldn't be in this situation, and I wouldn't be ruining your life."

"And when you say, 'ruining my life,'" she said making air quotes between them, "you really mean ruining yours, right?"

His jaw dropped a little.

"Let go of me, Ezra. I'll stop ruining your life."

He loosened his grip, and she reached for the ring on her finger.

"Aria," he said, deflated. "Don't."

She hesitated.

Shattered, he said, "I don't know how you could possibly think that. After everything." How much had they been through together? How many times had he told her, and shown her, he loved her? How many times had he made it clear his life became worth living the moment she walked into it?

"Because you're still doing it," she said.

"Doing what?"

"Feeling guilty. I told you you have nothing to feel guilty about. Not then. Not now."

He remembered. "I can't help it," he said dully. He couldn't sleep the night she said that. From dusk until dawn, he wondered what kind of person he was and swore he would never let it happen again. But she changed his life that night and he couldn't give her up all together, much as he tried.

"Well you better stop because I'm sick of it. I can see it in your eyes. You may love me, but you think it's wrong."

"That's not true," Ezra said. "I love you more than I can ever possibly express, but sometimes.. I wonder.. if you would have been better off without me."

She looked down and shook her head. _How can he think that?_

He lifted her chin. "You are the best thing in my life. The only thing that matters. I wouldn't take back _anything_," he said placing his other hand on her stomach.

"I need to know you mean that."

"I do."

"You need to realize something then. We never did anything wrong. And this," she placed her hands on top of his, "this was created in love and is nothing short of a miracle. We did everything right, took every precaution and she's still here. That _means_ something." She thought he understood that already.

"She?" Ezra blinked.

Aria smiled bashfully, realizing what she said. The tone of her voice softened dramatically. "I think it's a girl. I dreamt about her." It wasn't the first time she'd had this dream, but it was the first time she'd remembered it clearly.

Ezra let out a sigh that almost sounded like a laugh. He put his arms around her and rocked her back and forth.

"Sit down," he said after a few long seconds. "I'll make you a new cup of tea and you can tell me about your dream."

"Okay," she said, exhausted.

While Ezra worked in the kitchen, Aria rested her head back on the cushion. She fiddled with the ring on her finger, tracing each infinity symbol over and over and over. He set down a new cup of tea, without honey this time. She took a sip and looked up at him over the rim. "We're not gonna do this every time I throw up, are we? I don't think I can take it."

He laughed and pulled her closer, brushing her hair out of her face and rubbing her shoulder. "So tell me about our little girl…"


	30. Chapter 30

[Flashback]

The storm came out of nowhere. Aria was in the coffee shop when it started raining heavily. She decided not to wait it out, but to walk home. It's not the worst thing, she thought, as long as she had that grande mocha latte in her hand.

A silver car slowed past her. He stared right at her and kept driving. Aria's heart sunk. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about him since their encounter. She was grateful, and also astounded, her mother didn't feel the immeasurable tension between them in that movie theatre. It was kind of like a date, she thought, a weird, awkward, tension-filled date. She'd give anything to have another.

_Aria_, he thought. The sight of her out there in the pouring rain distressed him. _She saw me_, he thought. _What's she gonna think if I keep driving? She'll think I'm a jerk. Maybe that's a good thing. _But he couldn't stand the thought. _Would it be so bad to give her a lift? There's nothing wrong with that_, he reasoned and stopped the car.

At the movies yesterday, Ezra thought he was having a nervous breakdown. It took every ounce of restraint not to slide his hand over to touch hers, not to let his knee brush against hers even though it was so close. He tried to keep his mind on the movie, but it served only as background noise against the turbulent internal struggle. His thoughts slipped into a thousand different scenarios, each one ending the same way. He imagined she climbed on top of him and he ran his fingers through her thick hair. The seat reclined and she took off her top. He imagined she reached over and unzipped his pants, then got down on her knees in front of him. He imagined shoving her against that wall and ravaging her right there, making her scream. _Get a grip,_ he told himself.

The car stopped and the passenger side door flung open. She bolted for the car before he could change his mind. Inside was warm and dry. They started moving. _Where are we going?_ she thought, but didn't actually care. She would go anywhere with him.

Ezra kept his eyes on the road, careful not to look at her, or the bare knees in his peripheral vision. _Keep it together, _he thought.

The electricity in the air was palpable, so thick he felt unable to breathe. His conscious mind was no longer in control of the vehicle. If he could just kiss her, just once more, it would be out of his system. Then they could both move on.

She placed her coffee in the cupholder between them. _Is she feeling this too? _he thought. _No, it's just me…. If I could just kiss her… _Ezra realized the car wasn't moving. He had driven them into a dark alley, but couldn't remember doing it. The magnetic energy that hung in the air pressed down on them until they couldn't bear it anymore.

He grabbed her face at the same moment she grabbed his, and kissed her with great urgency. She reciprocated, breathing him in like he was oxygen. Her hair was wet and her tongue tasted like chocolate.

She twisted up to get closer to him, kicking her boots onto the ground. He didn't notice. Her scent was intoxicating. Ezra couldn't let go.

Aria rose to her knees and moved over to his lap. _She tastes so good,_ he thought. _I don't want to stop._ He kissed her with further urgency still, her hands on his face pulling him closer. Then she pulled off her wet coat, tossing it to the side, without ever letting her lips leave his. She tugged on his sweatshirt, trying to get it off, just one more unnecessary layer between them. He felt the same way and shrugged out of it, tossing it into the backseat.

Their kisses grew more passionate and intense. The warmth she was feeling at her center radiated out and down her legs. Her hands glided downward and started to undo his belt. Something inside him told him they had to stop. His left hand caught her wrist. "Wait. w..w..w..," he said, out of breath.

Her left hand reached up and her fingertips tenderly touched his face. She stared deep into his soul and kissed him slowly, eyes open, never breaking the gaze. _I want you_, she conveyed without words. _I need this._ He lost himself in the depths of hazel, suddenly unable to remember why he ever wanted to stop. This was inevitable.

He kissed her back, no longer resisting. She tugged on the belt again, removing one more obstacle keeping them apart, and whipped it into the back. Then her hands were in his hair.

Ezra used what little sense he had left and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. He fumbled for the little foil wrapper while Aria pulled down his zipper. He lifted them up giving him the space needed to push down his jeans, the last cursed obstacle, and rolled the condom on. Her hands were back on his face, and their eyes were closed when she lowered herself onto him and let out a tiny gasp.

They moved in unison, rocking up and down at a slow, steady pace. She buried her face in his neck while he grasped at her damp locks. Her body trembled involuntarily and she rocked her head back. He held her to him, trying to get closer, and closer still, impelling their bodies to meld into one. She kissed him hungrily, then they pressed their foreheads together and inhaled each other's air, all the while moving together in perfect harmony inside the confined space. His hands were on her waist, groping at the belt she wore over her sweater. He wanted nothing more than to touch her skin, but his fingers were unable to find the clasp.

Aria let go of his t-shirt, balled in her fists against his neck, to help in his endeavor, realizing they may have skipped a few steps in their haste. Her hot breath was still on his face as she pulled off the belt. Then her arm hit the steering wheel and the horn blast startled them both. She looked right at him, his eyes still wide from the shock, and placed his hand on her chest, slipping it under the neckline of her sweater, then resumed the rhythmic motions and held back the blissful outcry threatening to escape. She rested her other hand on top of his, squeezing it and holding it in place, making sure he could feel her heart racing. His other hand was on her lower back, pressing her close as they came together.

She collapsed onto him gasping for breath. They held onto each other like this for a long moment, taking simultaneous gulps of air. She savored the pleasurable tingle remaining at her core and breathed in his scent, hoping never to forget.

Then she removed herself from his lap, getting back into the passenger seat. Ezra used a napkin from the pocket of the door to collect the condom and shoved it into the trash in the back while Aria reached to the floor and slipped her boots back on. While he adjusted himself, she pulled down her sweater and smoothed her skirt, then rested her head back on the seat, enjoying the irregular rhythm of the rain hitting the roof. Besides their ragged breath, it was the only sound.

_What have I done?_ he thought as he looked over to her. "Was that your…" he asked, the words coming out against his consent. Just because he was wondering if he had stolen her virginity, didn't mean he had to say it out loud, but he had to know if he'd be drowning himself in alcohol later, or throwing himself off a bridge for being the lowest human being he knew.

She turned to him. "Oh, no," she said, not put off by the question at all. She shook her head and laid it back on the headrest again. "_That_ was _infinitely_ better," she said, truthfully, unable to keep the smile off her face. She thought of the awkward first time with her friend in Iceland. There was no spark, no urgency, no cosmic force pushing them together.

He liked seeing her smile and laughingly said, "Yeah, me too," in a low voice under his breath, running a thoughtless hand through his hair. He thought of his first time on prom night with a girl he hardly knew. They did it in the back of a limo just to get it over with; special, it was not.

She didn't know if he meant for her to hear, but the comment made her ecstatic inside.

"We shouldn't do that again," he said seriously.

She knew it couldn't happen again. He would lose his job and she would lose him forever. "Okay."

There was silence again, except for the rain, which was letting up.

"I should take you home now. Where do you live?"

"On Turning Leaf. It's not far."

Aria noticed him flinch when she said this. He put the car in gear and pulled away.

She changed the subject. "How many times have you seen that movie?" she asked.

He pressed the defroster because the windows were fogged. "At least a dozen times," he replied. "Have you seen it before?"

She scoffed internally. _Like I could pay attention to the movie sitting next to you._ "Oh yeah, half a dozen times at least. It would come on TV late at night all the time in Iceland, with subtitles. Since I'd seen it before, I tried to learn the language."

"How did that work out for you?" he asked.

"Uhh, not well. It didn't matter though. Everyone speaks English anyway." Not prepared for another awkward silence, she continued, "The best part is when those detectives are looking for Ellie and they pretend to be a married couple. He's screaming at her and she's pretending to cry. It's hysterical."

_"Quit bawlin'! Quit bawlin'!"_ he recited, in character.

Aria laughed hysterically. "You sound just like him!"

"That's my favorite part!" Ezra said.

"Me too!" she exclaimed. "And the piggy-back riding scene, the dialogue and the visual of her slung over his shoulder is hilarious."

"They really knew how to write a comedy back then."

"I know. Nothing today even compares. I also love the scene when she got so scared, she's not hungry anymore."

"Well, you know,_ if you're scared, it scares the hunger out of ya_."

"Do you know every line?" she asked, impressed, as she reached down by his feet to retrieve her belt. She noticed him tense up as she got close, then relax.

"Pretty much. … _Excuse me, lady, but that upon which you sit is mine._"

"_I beg your pardon?" _Aria said, doing her best 'Claudette Colbert.' She knew the lines as well as he did.

They both laughed.

"_It's all in that ol' thumb, see? …that ol' thumb never fails,_" he said, reciting yet another line from the film like a dork.

"_I'll stop a car, and I won't use my thumb!"_

_"What're you gonna do?"_

_"It's a system all my own."_

They laughed again.

_"Why didn't you take off all your clothes? You could have… stopped forty cars…"_ This line hit a bit too close to home. He lost conviction by the end, and gulped.

She ignored it. "_Well, ooo, I'll remember that when we need forty cars," _she recited, then chuckled. "You're very impressive."

Ezra remembered again why he shouldn't be in a car with this girl, no matter how easy it was to talk to her, or how relaxed she made him feel. It didn't matter if they liked the same things or could make each other laugh. _Wrong. Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong._

"This is my block. You can drop me at the corner, here," she pointed.

He pulled over, calling himself all sorts of names on the inside for screwing this girl and dropping her off on the street corner like a hooker, _scumbag, loser, creep_ being the most mild. She deserved so much better.

She shrugged her jacket back on and smoothed herself, running her fingers through her hair like a brush. "Do I look okay?" she asked, fixing herself in the mirror.

Taking her in, he quietly said, "Breathtaking," then kicked himself. _Stop saying stuff like that. This can't happen again._

Her eyes flashed to his face, a little thrill running through her. With the smile he could stare at for hours, she said, "I mean, not too… rumpled?"

He shook his head, looking down.

Aria turned to him, taking his hand, and looked him straight in the eye. "If you.. are feeling guilty.. about… anything… Don't."

With that, she gave him one last kiss, biting his bottom lip as she pulled away. Before he was ready to let her go, she exited the car, looking back at him only once. He waited until she got inside the door to pull away from the curb.

On the drive home, he noticed her coffee, now cold, sitting in the cup holder. He took a sip. It tasted like her.

* * *

[To refresh your memory, a link to a clip of this scene in 1.02 The Jenna Thing is in my profile.

If you haven't seen It Happened One Night, Google it - the whole thing is available to watch online. It's very funny. ]


	31. Chapter 31

The next day, Aria and Ezra spent another quiet evening at home. Last night, she put on a happy face while her family sang her 'happy birthday' over a chocolate cake covered in candles, but hadn't really been feeling herself, and still wasn't. Ezra could tell and he'd been sort of walking on eggshells all afternoon and tried not to bother her while he made dinner - falafel, a recipe he had gotten pretty good at. The first time he'd made it was early on in their relationship. When Aria had tasted the dish, though there was room for improvement, she told him it would earn him a gold star, hence the 'gold falafel' line in the poem he wrote about her.

Tonight he'd made a few changes, lightly frying the patties in olive oil instead of deep frying them, swapping out plain pita for whole wheat, and using a spicy hummus at Aria's behest. Grocery shopping was an adventure now since there were so many rules about what one should and should not eat during pregnancy. He was taking it even a little more seriously than Aria, who was mostly going by instinct when it came to what was healthy or not.

Ezra had rented a handful of Hitchcock DVDs for them to watch after dinner. Aria had told her mom that Ezra was taking her out to the movies tonight to celebrate her birthday, but she wanted to stay in instead of following through with the plan. Later she would tell her mother that the French film at the arthouse theatre was enthralling and thought-provoking, just like the review in the newspaper said it was. In actuality, they were nestled together on the sofa watching Dial 'M' for Murder. Aria knew Ezra had a thing for Grace Kelly which was why she had chosen this film over the other options.

Aria had seen this movie before so hadn't been counting on it to have the effect on her that it seemed to be having. Though Alison was at least 10 years younger than the character in the movie, and was killed in an entirely different way, watching an attractive young blonde woman being strangled to death on the screen hit a little too close to home. Aria closed her stinging eyes, squeezing out two sizable tears which splattered directly onto Ezra's wrist.

At first Ezra wasn't sure how upset she was because just the other day she had started crying during Shrek when Princess Fiona was eating dinner alone and a sad song played in the background. He'd started questioning if she wanted to watch something else, or do something else like get out of the house since they were now allowed to be seen together in public, in othertowns at least. Aria insisted she couldn't help crying even though she was fine and made them finish the movie.

When he heard the sniffle catch in her throat and felt another hot tear hit his wrist, Ezra turned to face her and saw her big watery eyes looking up at him and her bottom lip quivering, also wet with fallen tears. Clearly this was not another Shrek incident. Did it have anything to do with whathe'd said yesterday? he asked himself. Though he still believed waiting would have been smarter, and less illegal, he had apologized for saying it, and afterwards they had talked about the girl Aria saw in her dream, how she had seen her so clearly at first, but the picture kept fading while the setting became clearer than ever. They also had a more frank discussion about what she was actually going through carrying this baby. She admitted to downplaying the difficulties and promised not to anymore. The evening hadn't ended on a bad note at all.

Ezra glanced back at the screen. Is it the movie? he wondered. The current scene _was_ quite disturbing. _Bad choice_, he thought to himself. Why couldn't he have brought home a bunch of comedies instead? Ezra pressed the pause button on the remote and luckily the screen froze on the husband standing in a phone booth, not the wife fighting for her life against her attacker.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Though the movie's thin relevance to her life was the inciting cause, Aria was not crying over Alison; she had given enough tears to Alison DiLaurentis. No, Aria hadn't been paying much attention to the movie at all; she was too busy losing all of her confidence. She was barely 17 and overnight the prospect of being a mother became incredibly overwhelming. The sudden loss of faith likely had something to do with the dream she had this morning, which was not at all like the other one. She was at her house in Iceland and heard the baby crying in the next room. She couldn't understand why she was back at that house when she had planned to raise her daughter here, but got out of bed anyway, walking down the dark hallway to find the baby. Every room she walked into led her to another and another, and the baby wasn't in any of them. There was no sign of Ezra or her family, but there was someone there, someone she couldn't see, laughing at her while her crying child screamed louder and louder for her mother. No matter where she went, or how hard she searched, she couldn't get to her. The nightmare really shook her and had stayed with her all day.

Now that she was done pretending being secretly pregnant was not difficult and they felt like a real team now, Aria allowed herself to say, "I'm scared."

For him to say, 'I'm scared too,' wouldn't do anyone any good. _Only one of us can freak out at once_, he reminded himself, and today, it was her turn. Every day from now on could be her turn if that's what she needed. "What are you scared of?" Ezra asked, hoping she would let him in again.

It was a complex question with a many-layered answer. Mainly, right now, it boiled down to babies. Usually, she believed babies were easy. You fed them, changed them, rocked them to sleep, and just _loved_ them. It wasn't so hard. Except it was. And today she could only think of how much. Babies were dependent on you for everything. They're helpless needy little creatureswho demanded every moment of your time and every ounce of your energy. You couldn't just hand them back to their mother at the end of the day when _you_ were their mother. And they grew up. They grew up and got big and then they might start to hate you for no apparent reason and she just couldn't handle the thought of her baby hating her. The fears were starting to spiral out of control. "Everything," she whimpered and buried her face in his shoulder.

_Everything_? That's a lot of things to be scared of. He didn't have any idea what he could say to even begin to make her feel any better. Again he thought, _why am I doing this to her?_ same as yesterday. Why she couldn't be a year or two older, why they couldn't have waited, why she had to spend her mornings hunched over a toilet, her days pretending everything was fine and her nights crying for sometimes no reason at all. "I'm sorry," he said quietly, instinctively, petting her silken hair while she sobbed into his chest. "I'm sorry," he murmured again, the palm of his other hand soothing her back. "I'm so sorry..."

That was it! She'd had enough. "Stop apologizing!" she yelled at him in frustration. "Is that all you do!" She wasn't looking for an apology, or an answer. She just wanted him to be there, to listen, if and when she felt like talking.

Ezra was taken aback by the sudden change of her demeanor. Why couldn't he apologize for something he had caused? "Like it or not, this is my fault," he stated, not yelling.

"It's not your fault! It's no one's _fault_. Stop using that word." 'Fault' implied 'mistake' and no matter how scared she got, she never considered any of it a mistake. Not for a single fraction of a second. Aria wiped her red nose and blinked away the last of the tears. "If you're looking for someone to blame, you can blame me. For being all fertile and.. ovulate-y."

Ezra started laughing before she even finished the sentence, and then laughed even harder when he heard the end. Even on a day like this, she still retained a sense of humor.

Aria had to laugh too, seeing his smile up close and the way he was trying so hard to hide it as not to offend her.

Happy to see that frown turned upside down, Ezra said, "You can't be scared of everything. Tell me one thing."

Where to begin? There was too much. All the stuff that hadn't been bothering her all along was starting to - what was going to happen when her parents found out, when _everyone_ found out, what it would be like walking around with a belly out to 'there,' and forget about actually giving birth, she wasn't looking forward to that at all. And then she was questioning her competency as a mother, afraid the baby would reject her, or that she would fail her in some other way. Aria wouldn't even bother trying to explain. Not tonight. "I don't know. But I feel like, if everything else went to shit, it'd still be okay as long as we're together."

_Good_. Ezra lifted her left hand and held it clasped in his own. "See this ring? This is a promise that I'm not going anywhere." _And even if things get bad, I will fight for you and not stop fighting_, he thought overconfidently because he knew the future was not certain. "That is one thing you don't have to worry about." He would do enough worrying for the both of them.

Aria looked into his blue eyes, the image blurry from the tears hanging onto her eyelashes, and smiled because he had finally found the right thing to say. She knew he would be a good father. If he could comfort her when she was sad, he would do the same thing for their daughter, whose existence was still frightening to her, but now somehow not quite as much as before.

A lot of things went unspoken in this moment. Ezra was thinking she would be just as amazing at motherhood as she was at everything else and if that was what this melancholy was all about, then should just stop worrying.

Aria's pink lips moved closer and locked on his. She wanted to be close to him, impossibly desperately close, but had no energy to take things any further. He moved his lips in slow synchronicity with hers, until Aria sighed and rested her head on his shoulder again, that area of his t-shirt soaked through with her tears.

Ezra was glad. If she hadn't stopped, he would have because he drew a line at taking advantage of her in a vulnerable state. She had been laughing and crying and generally all over the place; it wasn't the right time.

He picked up the remote and switched to live TV, thinking he'd stick to films with less upsetting subject matter from now on. It was tuned to a channel playing an annoying infomercial for a vacuum cleaner. The spokespeople's voices were shrill and irritating. _Next._ He flipped to a home shopping channel, which was even worse. _Next._ Next was the news, which was generally more disturbing than anything else, _not_ what they needed right now. He kept flipping, hoping to find a cartoon like Spongebob, or an old TV show like The Honeymooners, but had no luck. Then he landed on a music station and put down the remote, having found the perfect thing to watch for the moment. Aria snuggled closer and listened to the song with her eyes closed, these words echoing in her mind:

.

_If I lay here / If I just lay here / Would you lie with me and just forget the world?_

* * *

The song is Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. Link in my profile.

So this chapter is quite long overdue. As is always the case, the scene had always taken place in my mind, but in more vague terms. It existed in separate bits and pieces I was never able to string coherently together until one day, I just decided to write it. I have to give some credit to KatyForYou who recommended I watch Dial M for Murder, and I did (great movie btw), and the scene started to take shape. Eventually it became easier to write it once I got it all organized better in my head. I was able to include a lot of things I thought had been left out, things I had gotten feedback on and wanted to remedy. I hope you liked it, and if you want to leave a review and it won't let you, try leaving it for a chapter you haven't already reviewed. Thanks everyone.


	32. Chapter 32

(Part 1 of 2)

Later that week, the girls sat in the lunch room at school talking and eating. While Spencer and Hanna discussed their biology assignment, Emily chatted with Aria. It had been a particularly rough weekend and Aria was glad to have returned to some semblance of normality.

"It's too bad we're not in the same class like them," Aria said.

"Yeah. It'd definitely make class more fun. But we can still study together. Are you still coming over later?"

"Uh huh."

"Do you wanna stay for dinner?"

"Do you know what your mom's making?" Aria asked, hoping it didn't sound too rude. The last thing she needed was Pam Fields suspecting she was pregnant, or getting offended when she turned down her food.

"Baked ziti, I think. Why, do you have other plans?"

"No, just curious." Aria took a bite of her salad. She had no aversions to pasta-based dishes, so she figured it was safe to eat at Emily's.

"How's Ezra?" Emily asked.

_Amazing. He's amazing. I love him more than ever. _"Good. The same."

"How are you guys doing?"

"Honestly, better than ever. Things are going really well."

Emily smiled genuinely. "You seem happy."

"I am." Aria figured she had been exuding pure happiness lately. It was like Emily to pick up on it. Emily's gift of being highly perceptive was exactly the reason Aria avoided her yesterday, not giving her the opportunity to notice how stressed out and exhausted she was. She barely spoke during English and had lunch off campus with Ezra, the only person whose face she had wanted to see. "What about you? Are you seeing anyone?"

"No."

"What about Maya? Nothing going on there?"

"No, Maya and I are just 'friends,'" Emily said using air quotes. "She kind of changed after she got back from that camp. We haven't hung out lately."

"Sorry," Aria offered as Hanna said, "Someone's looking a little pudgy these days. Do you think she's pregnant?"

The comment immediately caught Aria's attention. Her head shot up in Hanna's direction. Hanna wasn't looking at her though, she was gesturing to a girl on the lunch line a few yards away, whom Aria doubted was pregnant. Aria relaxed, but continued to look. There hadn't been any pregnant students at Rosewood High in the 3 years the girls had attended, but there was one girl a few years older than them she had heard about during middle school. She thought of a conversation she'd had with Ezra recently.

_"How's it gonna be for you when you start showing? How do you think people at school will react?"_

_"I don't care. They'll just have to deal with it. Anyone who's got anything to say about it can kiss my ass."_

_"That's the spirit!" he joked._

_"I'll be a _trailblazer_," she said loftily, then laughed._

_"I don't know if _trailblazer_ is quite the right word. It's a little too close to _trendsetter_."_

_"What, shouldn't everyone should get knocked up by their English teacher? All the cool kids are doing it…"_

"Just because someone doesn't look like a model, doesn't mean they're pregnant," Emily said.

"I know, but she was definitely a size 4 at the beginning of the year. I bet she's knocked up." Ever since her own pregnancy scare, Hanna had been hypercritical of the people around her, except, clearly, her own circle of friends.

"The last thing the world needs is another unwed teen mother," Spencer said cynically, still smarting from what happened with Wren.

Aria was a little hurt by the comment even though she knew it wasn't personal.

"That's kinda harsh, Spence," Emily said, expecting to hear something like that from her mother, not one of her best friends.

"Yeah, and it's kinda hypocritical, Hann, don't you think? Would you want people gossiping about you like that? You of all people should be a little more sensitive." Aria said, referring to Hanna's former size and struggle with her weight, leaving the teen mom comment alone.

"You're right. Sorry…" Hanna sometimes forgot what she had gone through, especially after spending any amount of time with Mona, who was the queen of gossip, and liked to pretend their days of unpopularity never happened. Hanna was mainly guilty of speaking first and thinking later.

"You never know what's really going on with people. It could be a side-effect of some medication or something," Emily added.

"Alright. I feel like crap. Now can we move on?" Hanna secretly hoped the girl was pregnant just to prove the others wrong. Then she took it back, afraid what hand karma might deal her for being so petty.

Emily broke the awkward silence by saying, "So what are your plans this weekend?"

"I gotta go to the mall," Hanna said. And the previous conversation ceased to exist as Hanna started daydreaming about the designer heels she had her eye on at her favorite boutique.

"I don't know yet," Spencer said. She wanted to invite Toby out for a picnic, but hadn't built up the nerve yet.

"Aria?" Emily asked.

"Ezra's coming over," Aria said casually, stabbing a cherry tomato with her fork. She watched the juice ooze out and mix with the salad dressing.

Thinking Aria had misspoke, she said, "You mean you're going over there?"

"No. I mean he's coming over. My house." Aria ate the tomato.

"Are your parents going out of town?" Spencer asked.

"No, it was my mom's idea. We're all gonna have dinner and watch a movie."

"Why are you not more freaked out about this? That's huge!" Hanna said.

"Because it's exactly what I want, for my parents to get to know him, as my boyfriend," _and the father of their grandchildren,_ "not their colleague."

"Your dad'll be there?" Emily asked, knowing things were strained with him right now as a result of Aria and Ezra's confession.

"Mom said he would." Aria wanted nothing more than for her father to accept their relationship. She knew it might be hard for him to see them together at first, but once he did, he couldn't deny they were right for each other.

"And you're not worried."

"Of course I am, but it'll be fine. How could they not love him? You guys love him, right?"

Tepidly, they all said, "Yeah."

"That wasn't very enthusiastic…"

"Of course we do," Emily said. "We just don't know him that well yet." The others nodded in agreement.

"You only sat in his class every day for 4 plus months…"

"That doesn't mean we _know_ him," Spencer said.

"What are you trying to say? Didn't we all have fun on my birthday?"

"No, of course we did! We just didn't realize how serious you guys were. We'd never actually seen you together, it was sort of… imaginary before. Do you know what I mean?"

"I guess..." Aria started wondering if her friends ever thought Ezra was her imaginary friend, like she'd made the whole thing up. The idea was funny to her.

"And out of nowhere he calls me and gets you that ring. It looks like a freakin' wedding band!"

Hmm, Aria thought, looking down at her right hand. It was full of rings, but not the one Spencer was referring to. She could imagine it there though. _I guess it does._

Her friend continued, "We just don't want you to wind up getting hurt."

"Does it seem like he's gonna hurt me?"

"No. And that's what I mean," Spencer explained. "You guys are scary good together." Whatever picture she had in her head of Aria and Mr. Fitz together, the buoyant and strikingly united couple she spent time with the other day was not quite it.

"It scares me too sometimes," Aria admitted. "The idea of forever…"

"Forever?"

"Well, yeah. Forever. Is that not, uh, obvious already?"

Emily raised her hand to shoulder level. "It's obvious to me."

"And me," Hanna said.

Spencer thought about it. It was hard for her to think about anything in terms of forever, but with them, she could see it. "Yeah, I guess me too," she admitted.

"Can I give you some advice?"

Apprehensively, Aria said, "Sure.."

"Don't act too, soulmate-y in front of your parents," Hanna advised. "Might scare them too." She and Caleb tried to keep the star-crossed-lovers shtick to a minimum around her mom.

Aria laughed. "Soulmate-y." Sounded like a word she would have come up with sooner or later. "Ok. I'll try."

.

(Part 2 of 2)

The chit chat reverted to lighter topics. After a few minutes, Hanna exclaimed, "Do you see what Naomi's wearing!" having forgotten all about the earlier conversation about gossip.

They all looked in her direction.

"That dress is hideous, and those shoes, what is she thinking?"

Spencer unwrapped her sandwich and said, "Not everyone can be a fashionista like you, Hann."

The smell of the tuna fish hit Aria in the face. She jumped out of her chair and ran out of the room without looking back.

"No, but she could make an effort… Hey, where'd Aria go?"

"Maybe she was offended cuz she has those same shoes in her closet," Spencer suggested.

"She does not. I know everything in her closet and she'd never wear those. They probably came from _Target_." She might as well have said "the sewer" the way she said "Target."

"My shoes came from Target," Emily said, offended.

"Those don't count. They're Converse. They never go out of style. Just don't start wearing them with formal wear, or we'll have to have a talk."

.

Aria held her hair back and tried not to touch anything while she puked into the toilet in the girls' room at school. It wasn't really possible unfortunately. After she was done, she flushed and went to the sink to wash her hands and rinse her mouth out with water. As unpleasant and inconvenient as these incidents were, Aria was able to put a positive spin on it. It meant everything was going right with the baby and that was all she cared about.

While she was digging through her bag for a breath mint and tube of lip gloss, Jenna emerged from the stall next door.

Aria froze.

"Something you ate?" Jenna asked smugly while washing her hands.

"Yeah. Don't eat the pasta salad," Aria said as she wrenched the door open and got the heck out.

.

When she got back to the lunch table, Emily asked, "Where'd you go?"

"Yeah, I turned around and you were gone," Hanna added.

"I realized I forgot to turn in my homework 3rd period so I went to give it to Ms. Woolverton so she wouldn't deduct points."

"Oh. Who cares? How much could she really take off?"

"I don't know, but I'm doing well in that class, I don't want to screw it up."

"Maybe I should have taken chemistry this year," Hanna said. "It seems way easier than bio."

"It's not that easy," Emily said. "And it doesn't matter which one you took this year, you'd still have to take the other next year."

The thought hadn't occurred to Hanna before. "Save your notebooks," she said urgently. "Both of you. I'm gonna need those."

Emily said, "That's cheating," at the same time Aria said, "What's it worth to ya?"

When Emily's response registered, Aria changed her response, stating, "Emily's right. That's cheating."

"Nooo, it's helping out a friend in need. I'll make it worth your while. You can have my bio notebook."

"How is that worth my while? Spencer's on the other hand…"

"Good point," Hanna conceded. "Having Spencer for a lab partner is the only reason I'm passing this class."

"Still cheating…" Emily singsonged, then took a bite of her lunch.

"Don't give me that, little miss I've got a fake scholarship to Danby."

"You know _I_ didn't go through with that," Emily whispered.

"Oh yeah," Hanna said. She had actually forgotten A had a hand in that.

"Maybe we shouldn't be talking about this right now," Spencer said.

"Yeah," Aria agreed, pointlessly checking over her shoulder.

"Fine. Consider it dropped. But I'm still counting on you to get me in someplace good," Hanna told Emily.

"It doesn't work like that, Hanna," Spencer said. "Even with a good essay, you're still gonna need the grades and some extra-curriculars."

"It's true. I started tutoring because it looks good on college applications." And also because she hated being completely dependent on her parents for money and, moreover, Ezra. It felt like an inequality in their relationship even though it wasn't a real issue.

"Besides the swim team, I joined Amnesty International," Emily added.

"And I'm o-" Spencer began, about to start counting on her fingers.

Aria clasped her hand over Spencer's. "She's in too many clubs to list."

Spencer laughed, a little disappointed no one wanted to hear a list of her many accomplishments.

"Even Mona's on a million student committees," Aria added to help make her point.

"I get it! I'm on the yearbook, remember?"

"When was the last time you went to a meeting?" Emily asked.

"Last Tuesday," she said, self-righteously.

"Right, when you sat there for an hour looking up YouTube clips while Lucas worked on the layout all by himself?"

"Oh, I told you that, huh?" Hanna said, biting a french fry.

Emily nodded.

"Whatever. I'm still on it. It counts."

Spencer said, "It's a start."

* * *

[Sorry about the sucky ending here. I couldn't think of more stuff for them to talk about, but I may go back and add something sometime. Open to suggestions.

So I wanted to ask if you guys are finding the story funny... I know it's not laugh out loud funny, but, I dunno, it makes me laugh sometimes haha. I basically wrote it for myself, but it would make me happy to know other people are enjoying it as well. What's your favorite part so far? Or your favorite line? I think it's hysterical that Ezra would ask which of the girls is A. I had been dying for something like that to happen on the show because after he got that text, he never asked about it again. I guess it can't happen now that A has been revealed, but in my head, it's hilarious. Anyway, please leave comments! Tell me what you're thinking, what you think should happen, if you're confused about anything, if there's something you think should have happened but didn't, if I got a detail from the show wrong, anything you want. And thanks again to my loyal followers who read every day!

BTW, I've opened it up to anonymous reviewers. I didn't realize the default only allowed registered viewers to leave comments. So even if you're not a member of this site, I'd love to hear from you! ]


	33. Chapter 33

Aria started adding more loose dresses to the rotation with the idea that it wouldn't be such a noticeable change when she actually started needing looser clothing to hide the baby bump. She also cut back on the low cut tops realizing her enhanced, ahem, figure might draw some unwanted attention. Ezra seemed to like it though. She kept up the routine of tutoring and spending a lot of time at her friends' houses and at Ezra's, and even started babysitting occasionally, for the cash and the experience.

Her dad's friends, the Parthas, needed someone to watch their baby one night in order to attend some symposium in the city. She had offered those months ago at her parents' dinner party and they decided to take her up on it, once she passed the rigorous evaluation process. Their little boy, Sidney, was adorable and a pleasure to watch.

Aria sat on a stool in the kitchen eating a bowl of ice cream drizzled with hot sauce when Mrs. Partha walked in, shaking off an umbrella and hanging up her coat. "There you are," she said. "How was he?"

"He was perfect. I put him down a few minutes ago." Aria gestured at the video monitor on the counter displaying the baby asleep in his crib. The sound of the mobile trickled through the speakers.

Nancy took a closer look. "Aww, thanks for doing this."

"It was my pleasure. Call me anytime. How was the symposium?" Aria asked.

"Boring. I've attended worse though. The food was good at least. We left early because Eliot realized he had a pile of papers to grade by tomorrow and on the way home, he remembered they were sitting in his office. I asked him to drop me home first, it's tough being away from Sid."

Aria nodded, understandingly.

"What are you eating?" Nancy asked, noticing the hot sauce on the counter.

Aria looked at her, embarrassed. "It's ice cream and hot sauce," she admitted. "I saw it on the food network and just had to try it. It's actually really good!"

Nancy laughed. "You sound like me last year. When I was pregnant I wanted to try everything! All someone had to do was mention something like Oreos or mozzarella sticks and I had to have some!" She laughed again at the memories, and then quickly decoded the deer-in the-headlights look about Aria's face. "Oh, dear, are you…?"

Aria nodded slowly, relieved to be telling the truth for once. As much as she wanted to keep this pregnancy all to herself, keeping it secret was also eating her up inside.

"Please don't tell anyone," she asked. "I'm not ready to tell people."

"I won't tell anyone," Nancy said, pulling up a stool. "Are you okay?"

Aria looked up at her smiling broadly and nodding. "I'm great," she said sincerely. It was so nice to talk to someone about this.

"How far along?"

"8 weeks," Aria said, inwardly thrilled to be able to say the number.

"Is the father in the picture?" Nancy asked.

"Yes," she said. "He's amazing. We are so happy, honestly."

"But you haven't told your parents?"

Aria looked down at her melted ice cream, red streaks swirling into pink puddles around the edge. "Noo… They're not exactly thrilled with the guy I'm dating. He's a little bit older and they don't fully approve. But they're coming around. We're going to tell them soon."

Nancy listened thoughtfully. "How are you doing? I remember at this stage being exhausted all the time. And the morning sickness! It was ridiculous."

Aria nodded vigorously in agreement. "The morning sickness is not too bad, but certain things set it off. Things I used to eat no problem. And I can never guess what'll do it."

"It must be hard, keeping it a secret on top of school and everything. Don't underestimate your parents," Nancy sagely advised her. "They may be surprised at first, but they will be there for you, I'm sure of it. Everyone wants a grandchild, even if the circumstances are… not what they'd imagined."

"I know," she said. "We're going to tell them."

"Well, I'm here if you ever want to talk," Nancy kindly offered. "You can call me anytime."

"Thank you," Aria said. She truly appreciated the offer. Aria got up and rinsed her bowl and put the hot sauce away while Nancy pulled some bills from her purse.

Standing up, she asked, "Are you free next Sunday?" as Aria walked toward the door. "We are invited to a dinner party."

"Sure. What time?" Aria affirmed, pulling on her coat and lifting the hood over her long brown locks.

"6."

"Okay. I'll be here. Thank you," Aria said, taking the money.

"Aria?" Nancy said as Aria reached for the doorknob. "You're a natural at this. You'll make a great mom."

Aria smiled at her, then took off into the rain.

* * *

[A link to what Nancy Partha looks like can be found in my profile, in case you forgot.

Thank you to Clara. Your comment made my day! I try to keep the personalities of the characters as true to the show as possible. I only wish I had the knack for jokes with punchlines like on the show. Sometimes the dialogue has me rolling. All 4 of the girls are funny in their own way. Thank you so much for reading! ]


	34. Chapter 34

(Part 1 of 2)

Aria's mom had brought up the idea of having a movie night since they hadn't all been together as a family much lately. She even suggested having Ezra over. Aria was thrilled her parents were making this effort. She made sure to pre-approve the menu so she wouldn't be forced to make any surprise announcements before she was ready.

When the day came, Byron decided he had to work late. Aria was disappointed, but knew as long as her mom was on her side, her father would get there eventually.

After a short debate which Ezra tried to stay out of, the group picked a few Marx brothers movies to watch later. Mike actually liked those old comedies, though he'd never admit it to his friends. During dinner, Ezra and Mike got deep into conversation about comic books. Aria had no idea Ezra had an interest, and was happy he found something to bond with her brother over. Ella was polite and made conversation about work, a safe and familiar topic.

"The food is delicious. Next time, if you want, I'll cook for you guys," Ezra said, hoping he wasn't being too presumptuous implying there would be a next time.

"You like to cook?" Ella asked.

"A little. Before Aria, I could make 2, maybe 3, reasonably edible dishes." Ella picked up on the way he basically just divided his life into 'before Aria' and 'after Aria. "Now I can pass for a competent cook, thanks to her. Or, I guess I actually have you to thank?"

She gave him a courteous smile.

"_Competent_ may be overstating it," Aria interjected. "I did teach him grandma's meatball recipe though. That one he's pretty good at."

"You taught him grandma's secret family recipe!" Mike gasped.

Ezra's eyes widened, first looking to Aria, then to Ella apologetically.

Mike started laughing, Aria tried to kick him under the table, and missed, and Ella, holding back a chuckle, said, "It's not a secret. He's kidding."

Ezra relaxed. _I can take a little hazing_, he thought. Her friends, namely Hanna, already hazed him pretty well and he'd survived, dignity intact.

"Wow, that was easier than I thought," Mike added, still laughing at the initial expression on Ezra's face.

"Vegetable risotto. You've gotten good at that too," Aria said charitably, touching his arm. He smiled back at her, remembering the first time they had made that dish. He left it on the stove a little too long and turned up the flame a little too high. It turned into a sticky inedible mess in the time it took her to retrieve a book from her car downstairs. They wound up resorting to a box of macaroni and cheese, their go-to after almost every dinner disaster.

"So she's doubled your repertoire then?" Ella said, wondering when these cooking lessons had taken place and how much time exactly Aria had been spending at Ezra's apartment. She had no idea he had mastered this particular dish under Aria's tutelage nearly 7 months ago.

"You could say that," Ezra answered. "I also make a mean mac and cheese."

"From a box," Aria said. "It doesn't count."

"Who says?"

"I say. Didn't we have this conversation already? After you burned the couscous?"

"When was this?" Ella asked, and _tried_ to not like the idea of them spending time together behind her back a little less.

"Last month," Aria lied, taking a bite of her food. She continued, "Boxed goods and cans of soup don't count. Neither do leftovers."

"But that's my specialty," he protested.

"Is that all you guys do?" Mike said. "Cook?"

Ezra sensed they may be entering dangerous territory with this line of questioning.

"Noo," Aria said. "We also rent movies, listen to music, or do nothing. We just hang out." She wasn't even lying. Doing nothing together was one of her favorite leisure activities.

"Sounds boring."

"It's not. Though it's kinda true about 90% of our relationship is based around food," Aria said, smiling at Ezra.

"And coffee," Ezra added, grinning back.

"And the other 10 percent?" Mike asked.

"Common interests," Aria answered quickly, staring him down. "A shared loved of art, poetry, and classic films."

Mike's demeanor showed no intention of backing off.

Aria cleared her throat, resting her wrist on the edge of the table, and sweetly asked, "Would you pass the peas, _Michelangelo_?"

Ezra's ears perked up and he looked up from his plate. Mike's face turned beet red and he gave Aria the dirtiest look he could muster. Turning violently toward Ezra, he barked, "You take it to the grave, man! You hear me!"

.

During the movie, Ezra sat next to Aria with his arm around her. It was no use trying to avoid physical contact. Aria was the one to put his arm around her, he didn't have much say in the matter. Ella didn't seem too put off by it.

After the first movie ended, Ella offered to bring everyone ice cream and Mike went upstairs to check his email.

"Are you having a good time?" Aria asked.

"Uh-huh," Ezra affirmed. Things were going well so far. He'd maintained control over his mouth, remembering to think before he spoke, and made it through dinner unscathed.

"I wish we were alone," she whispered.

Confused, he said, "We are alone."

"No," she said, inching up to his ear. "I wish we were _alone_."

Ezra laughed and looked over his shoulder. The coast was clear. He gave her a quick kiss then resumed a respectable distance. Aria moved closer.

"You know what I would do if we were _alone_?" she whispered in his ear. "I'd take this little finger," holding up her hand, "and starting right here," she placed it on his bottom lip, "I'd run it down your chin,... and down your neck,... and down your chest…" She did this slowly as she spoke.

"Aria," he said, dry-mouthed.

"Then you know what I would do?" she whispered, pressing her body against his. "I'd take my tongue, and starting in the same place," she bit his bottom lip, "I'd run it down…, down…, down…," using her finger, "the same path until-," her finger reached his belt buckle.

Ezra escaped her grasp, leaning forward, feigning a coughing fit. Aria sat back laughing and patting his back.

"Are you okay?" Ella called as she entered the room, bowls of ice cream in hand. Ezra kept coughing and nodded his head.

"I'll get him some water," Aria offered, and jumped up. Ella set the bowls down on the table. Ezra kept clearing his throat until Aria returned with a glass of water and an evil smirk on her face.


	35. Chapter 35

Can you believe Season 3 is only 12 days away! 12 days! That's nothing. I can't believe how fast this hiatus flew by. Probably because I've been preoccupied writing this story. So excited. Let the countdown begin!

* * *

(Part 2 of 2)

While the credits rolled at the end of the second movie, everyone shifted in their seats and stretched a little.

Mike said, "So Freddie might come visit, around this time next year." He'd read his email earlier and couldn't wait to use this information to mess with his sister. After Aria's forbidden verbalization of his real name during dinner, he had been tempted to get even by revealing something he wasn't supposed to know, but knew she would never forgive him for it if he did. This way seemed like much more fun anyway.

"I know," Aria said, putting her feet up on the coffee table. "He told me. He said he's saving up some money for the trip. You keep in touch with him?"

"Uh huh," he said, setting his sights on Ezra. "Ezra, you know all about _Freddie_, right?"

Ezra knew all about Fridrik, a.k.a. Freddie, a.k.a. '_The Deflowerer_' as Aria once referred to him, prompting a very humorous discussion about how to properly deflower someone. "Aria's mentioned him," he said, indifferently. "He likes to climb glaciers, right?"

Mike's face fell a bit when he realized his raising this topic wasn't having the desired effect.

Ella was slightly surprised both Aria and Ezra were being so nonchalant about the mention of one of Aria's ex-boyfriends. It didn't faze them at all.

"Yeah. I went with him once," Mike said, carrying on anyway. "It was awesome."

"You climbed a glacier?" Ella said, displeased. They only did that once as a family, and Freddie wasn't there.

"Uh yeah. Just a little one," he added, holding up his fingers to emphasize the smallness of said glacier. This conversation was not going his way. Ella didn't know about that little adventure.

Ella squinted at Mike who knew it was time to make himself scarce.

She shook it off and said to Aria, "You can tell Freddie he can stay here. So he doesn't have to waste money on a motel." Freddie was a nice boy who spent a lot of time at their house in Iceland. Ella would be glad to have him stay.

"I did," Aria said. "He wants to travel all over though, so he can't stay here the whole time."

Ezra took no issue with this whatsoever. Ella made a small noise of acknowledgement, then Aria excused herself to use the bathroom. Ezra stood, and brought some dishes into the kitchen with Ella.

"I know it's not easy to have me over like this," Ezra said. "I just wanted to say I truly appreciate the effort you're making."

Sidestepping his gratitude once again, she said, "Well, I haven't seen Aria much lately, except at school. This seemed like the best way to get her to sit in one place for a few hours."

"It was a good idea. I haven't seen her much lately either," he lied. "She's always tutoring someone, or babysitting. I'm glad you arranged this movie night. We should do it again sometime," _before you figure out what's going on and won't let me within 12 feet of her._

"We should," Ella agreed, irresolutely. She still hadn't let her guard down around him, still looking for flaws in his character and a reason to make her daughter break things off. But so far, she found nothing. They had been following the rules she laid down and had she not known Ezra beforehand, had he not been Aria's teacher, she probably wouldn't have had a problem with him dating her daughter, despite the age difference. It was impossible to forget this though, impossible to forget she forged a friendship with this man who started dating her underage daughter behind her back. However, she couldn't deny the fact he seemed to be a good influence on her, or at least, not a bad influence, noticing the extra responsibilities Aria had taken on lately. She did, in fact, see what her daughter saw in Ezra, and tried to keep it in mind every time she thought of them together.

"I wanted to ask you, I got tickets to a gallery opening in Philly next week." Ezra scratched the back of his neck. "Would it be okay if I took her? If we took the train, we probably wouldn't be back until after 11."

"I suppose that would be okay, as long as she calls to check in."

"Of course," Ezra agreed without hesitation.

"Who is the artist?" Ella asked.

"Oh, it's a joint show with a-"

"What are you guys talking about?" Aria asked nosily as she entered the room.

"You," her mother said matter-of-factly.

"What are you telling him!" Aria implored.

"Maybe a little something about... Pigtunia!" her mother teased. The stuffed pig accompanied Aria everywhere as a child. The pair carried on many a conversation together.

"What! What did she say?" she demanded from Ezra, lightly shoving him. Aria was thrilled this night had gone even better than she had expected, despite her father's absence.

"Nothing I don't already know," he said and kissed her head. "Ella, thank you again for having me over. I hope to see you again soon."

"You're very welcome. Good night."

"I'll see you next week," he said to Aria, knowing full well he'd see her before that. "Good night."

"Good night," she called as Ezra showed himself to the door, scowling internally she didn't get a real kiss out of him first.

"You told him about Pigtunia?" Ella asked as the front door closed.

Aria shrugged, and said, "I told him everything."

* * *

[So whaddaya think? Too soulmate-y? ]


	36. Chapter 36

There was a surprising lack of response to the first flashback chapter. I hope you guys liked it, even if you didn't have much to say about it, because it's sort of the crux of this whole thing, and first of a handful of others which provide the backstory.

* * *

[Flashback]

"Hey, I thought you were helping out at the gallery," Ezra said when he opened the door. He was simultaneously surprised, delighted and troubled by her presence. Part of him regretted mentioning his apartment number to her that first afternoon they had met, no longer trusting himself to be alone with her.

"I was. … Can I come in?"

_No. Say no, _he told himself_._ "I'm, not, sure if that's a good idea."

It felt like a slap in the face. He was the one person she thought she could turn to. "I'm s-sorry, this was a mistake, I shouldn'ta come here. I just didn't know where else to go. … I'll see you on Monday."

Aria started to leave.

He couldn't reject her like that though. It would only make things worse. And he didn't want her to leave. She seemed upset. Ezra didn't know what the right thing to do was. _The right thing would have been to end it before it went too far. _He felt like garbage for what happened the other day, but he couldn't start ignoring her or pretending it didn't happen. He knew, since he crossed that line, there was no going back. He would be there for her if she needed him.

"No-o, wait. Are you okay? Do you need me to drive you home?" he offered, trying to help, but realizing what a terrible idea that would be given what happened last time.

"That's the last place I wanna be." The only place Aria wanted to be was in his arms. He was separate from the rest of her life, a safe haven, or at least, she had thought so. She had never felt safer than when his arms were holding her tight. Nothing else existed when they were together.

He was very concerned by her response. "Why? What happened?"

"Can we just, be here, for a minute?" she asked tearfully.

Ezra instinctually gave her a hug, momentarily ignoring the voice in his head. What could have happened at home? he wondered. What could be bad enough she would turn up on his doorstep? While they embraced, he became worried there might be something seriously wrong. His mind jumped to the worst possible conclusion. What if she came from an abusive home? What if letting things go too far between them was a substantially worse mistake than he ever imagined? Had he played on her vulnerable state and really taken advantage, despite what she said? Of course he had. They just attended her best friend's funeral. What kind of mindfuck was that, kissing her 5 seconds after she agreed to end things at her dead best friend's _funeral? _But he couldn't help it.

She was clearly still in a very vulnerable state. Was he still taking advantage of it? Was he letting his feelings cloud his judgment? Was he inflicting even more emotional damage on her by not drawing a clear line at the beginning? Even if that were the case, he was far too invested now to walk away. He cared far too much for her. The word 'love' flashed through his mind, like it had been doing sporadically over the past few days. He would try to push it aside and convince himself otherwise, but it kept cropping up every time he pictured her face. That image of her, inches in front of him, face dewy and cheeks flushed, had become the new definition, as if he'd never known the meaning of the word before. And now, having that beautiful face buried in his chest, weeping quietly against it, hurt. It hurt him to see the girl he loved hurting. He just wanted to make it better.

"Did something happen to you?" Ezra asked gently, continuing to rub her back. "You can tell me. I want to help." How could he help? If someone was hurting her, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from punishing the piece of shit for it. It would become plainly obvious he cared about her as more than a student. Yet he didn't care about himself. Even if he was never able to see her again, he would survive knowing he helped get her out of that situation.

Aria pulled back to answer him, so her words wouldn't be muffled, and she saw how scared he looked anticipating her answer. What must he be thinking right now? "No," she said, taking a step back and wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. She folded her arms and said, "I just feel like everything is falling apart and it's my fault."

Victims often blamed themselves, this much he knew. "I'm sure whatever it is is not your fault."

His certainty made Aria feel the tiniest bit better, but it was unfounded; he didn't know the situation. She could have prevented this woman from reentering their lives if she had told the truth right away. And A wouldn't be able to hold it over her head. Ezra didn't look any less worried, but seemed reluctant to say anything else.

"My father..."

_What did he do to you? I'll kill him._

"had an affair."

Ezra started to breathe again. He hadn't realized he had stopped. The disturbing visions of painful trials and public disgrace vanished. Cheating parents he could deal with. No one was hurting her, except maybe him, by letting this go on.

"Over a year ago," she continued. "He promised me it was over. Then yesterday, she walks right up to us, tries to talk to me like I don't know exactly what was going on. She turned up again today, and I said something to her. I told her to back off, but she's not going to. She's _setting out_ to break up our family. Who _does_ that?"

"That's… hard… but it's not… your fault." There was a lot more he wanted to say, but still felt like keeping his distance was best.

"It is. I could have stopped this if I'd told my mom the truth, but my dad… he told me not to. He said he ended it and if I told my mom, it would only hurt her. I've been lying to her for over a year. She'll never forgive me."

"...It is not okay what your father did, but you are not to blame for any of it. It's an impossible situation he put you in." Again, he wanted to say more, but held back.

"I never told anyone about this before." Alison didn't count; she was there. She had urged Aria to do the right thing, but the thought of losing her family was too much to handle. It didn't stop Alison from tormenting Aria about her decision, both before and after her death. "I'm sorry to unload on you like this," she said, sensing his discomfort.

"Don't be. I want you to know… you can tell me things… I'll listen." He didn't know what this was between them, but wanted her to know he cared.

"Thank you," she said, wrapping her arms around him once more. Aria stood on her toes to kiss him, brushing her lips against his softly. When he didn't pull away, her tongue gingerly requested entrance into his mouth, which he granted, and their tongues danced together lightly. Her arms were looped under his, holding his shoulders, and she pulled herself up to reach him more easily, her tongue becoming slightly more eager. His heartrate accelerating, he turned them slightly so his back was against the wall next to the doorframe and squeezed his arms more tightly around her. She pressed herself into him and the kiss grew more heated.

When he felt things were getting out of hand, he loosened his hold on her. "Aria?"

Aria let her hands fall from his shoulders. She hadn't realized how tightly she had been gripping them. "I know," she said quietly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" She started over. "I'm not going to do anything to-" She took a breath. "I know it can't happen again."

Ezra took a deep breath, avoiding her eyes.

"Thank you… for being here."

He tried not to look at her, knowing what a hold she held over him, but he felt her eyes on him and finally met them. Aria gave him a small genuine smile, then turned to leave.

"It'll be okay," he said, wanting to offer her a word of comfort.

She nodded appreciatively and continued down the hall.

* * *

[To refresh your memory, a link to a clip of this scene in 1.03 To Kill a Mocking Girl is in my profile (begins at the 2 minute mark). ]


	37. Chapter 37

(Part 1 of 2)

Spencer had all the girls over on Friday night for a little studying, and a little partying. Finals were coming up and they all needed to blow off some steam. As usual, her parents were out of town. They ordered Thai food and Emily made sure to check the boxes before she left the restaurant, just in case they had a repeat of last time. No one wanted to see worms on the kitchen counter again. A seemed to have been laying low as of late, which was possibly more frightening than the constant torment.

Spencer took advantage of this reprieve, however, and had gotten back together with Toby. It was all she could talk about this night.

"Toby and I are officially back together," Spencer announced.

"That's great, Spence," Hanna said while Aria said, "That's good news."

"Good for you guys," Emily added.

"I decided screw it. I'm not letting A run my life. I never should have broken up with him in the first place."

"I get it," Aria said. "I'm never letting anyone keep me and Ezra apart." She meant it. Not A, not Noel, not Jackie, not her parents, no one.

"How is Fitzy these days?" Hanna asked cheekily. "We haven't seen him since your birthday." Which was all of 2 weeks ago.

"_Fitzy_ is excellent, thank you for asking."

They all laughed.

"So Spence, what did you tell Toby about why you broke up?" Hanna asked.

"I, uhh, well, I told him I was scared of how serious we were getting and I needed some space. And that I thought he'd be better off without me, that I was keeping him here in Rosewood when he could get away from here, from Jenna…"

The other girls all listened while they ate.

"It's not so far from the truth," she said. "Anyway, it took some convincing, but we are finally back together."

"Why'd it take convincing?" Hanna asked. "He loves you right?"

"Well…. I had to tell him the truth. That I was seeing someone after we broke up."

"You were?" Aria and Emily asked simultaneously. "Who?" Hanna asked.

Spencer's eyes darted across each of their plates, then she admitted, "Wren."

"How long were you seeing him?" Hanna asked.

"For about a month or so. It all sort of fell apart," Spencer told, recalling their breakup.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Hanna asked on behalf of the others, who were equally curious, but less nosy.

"I don't know… I felt pretty guilty about it. Toby and I had just broken up and Wren was just… there. And he was so persistent… Long story short, Wren wasn't the guy I thought he was and I saw what a mistake it was letting Toby go."

They were all momentarily silent, digesting this revelation.

"He was seeing someone else too. Did you know, Em?"

Lost in thought, Emily snapped out of it, and said, "No."

"Oh." Spencer seemed disappointed. "I'm dying to know who it was, but we both agreed to let go of the past and only think about us."

"You're really gonna let it go?" Aria asked, knowing Spencer well. Spencer was like a dog with a bone when it came to things like this, but she seemed to have mellowed out lately, at least a little bit.

"Yes. I am. I'm gonna try. No, I can let it go. If he can forgive me for Wren, I can forgive him for dating some other girl. I don't even have to forgive him. We were broken up. It's fine."

"Oookay.." said Aria, wondering if Spencer was done talking herself into being a reasonable person, and she excused herself to use the bathroom.

.

When she came back, only Emily remained in the kitchen.

"They went upstairs to go through Spencer's closet. To find the perfect thing to wear for her first date with Toby," Emily said, somewhat glumly.

"Oh okay," Aria said sitting back down. "Is everything okay, Em? You seem a little down."

She looked over her shoulder at the stairs then back at Aria. "If I tell you, will you promise not to repeat it?"

"Of course. What is it?"

Emily took a deep breath then said quietly, "I'm the one Toby was seeing after he and Spencer broke up."

"What? Really?" Aria said, shocked.

Emily nodded to confirm.

"Oh, I didn't realize…"

"Yeah, me neither," Emily said with a slightly surly tone.

"Was it serious? How long did you go out?"

"We didn't really go out… It was more like a friends with benefits sort of thing?" The words began spilling out. "At least, that's what he thought it was. And I guess that's what it was… I don't know what to do. I feel like I ruined a friendship with one of my best friends and I did it behind my other best friend's back. She's gonna find out. I'm not gonna be able to explain it. She's gonna hate me." The 'thing' with Toby had been going well for the first few weeks until he referred to it as 'friends with benefits.' It wasn't that he wasn't interested in turning it into something more, it was that he didn't believe Emily wanted that, and when she was finally honest with herself, she realized she didn't. They argued about what they really were, then mutually decided to end it. Things had been awkward since.

"She's not gonna hate you," Aria reached out to touch Emily's hand. "She'll understand, she loves you, Em. I can help you tell her if you want."

"No," Emily looked up, scared. "No, thanks," she said, a little more politely. "I still need time to figure things out. She doesn't need to know yet."

"Then I won't tell her," Aria promised. "Can I ask you something?"

Emily nodded.

"Are you in love with him?"

Emily thought about this. What a loaded question. "No, but I do love him."

Aria rubbed her hand. She hated seeing her friend like this and couldn't believe she'd been so wrapped up in her own life she hadn't noticed. There was a lot going on in her life and she started to wonder why she hadn't shared it with her friends. _What am I waiting for? I should just tell them. _Emily had confided in her, and it was her turn to do the same.

"There's something I've been wanting to tell you," Aria said. "A secret I've been keeping."

"Have you been sleeping with Toby too?" Emily asked, joking.

Aria laughed. "Noo…"

Just then they heard footsteps on the stairs. Emily said, "shhh, tell me later," and gave Aria a smile. "What'd you find?" Emily called out to the girls.

"_Nothing_," Hanna declared. "A huge closet full of clothes and she's got nothing to wear. We're going shopping tomorrow."

* * *

[Please assume the earthworms in their takeout thing happened during the month I skipped at the beginning of my story. I had to include it, it was just too good (and gross!) a trick to leave out.

Also, I'm just gonna put it out there that I'd like to know if I made any typos/obvious grammatical errors. I'm kind of meticulous about punctuation and stuff. I know I don't write with perfect sentence structure and whatnot, but I'd like to catch and fix the unintentional stuff. And as always, thanks for reading!

To KatyForYou - your comment made me so happy! I am so glad you are liking the story and that you appreciate the It Happened One Night references. I was afraid it would go over everyone's head and people would be like wtf is she talking about? Haha, it really is a great movie. Thank you so much! ]


	38. Chapter 38

(Part 2 of 2)

The girls went back to their studies, then called it quits when they'd had enough. Spencer turned on some music and Emily braided Hanna's hair while the latter flipped through a magazine. When Aria got up to use the bathroom again, Spencer said, "God, Aria, you're as bad as Melissa!" Melissa, her very pregnant sister. "She gets up to pee every 5 minutes."

"Hehehe," Aria laughed as she turned the corner. _Tell them. Just tell them already!_

When she returned, everyone had changed places. Hanna was in the kitchen handing out glasses. Emily was on Spencer's computer adding songs to the playlist while Spencer looked over her shoulder approvingly.

"I made lemonade," Hanna said, pouring Aria a glass first, then the rest.

"Thanks," she said, and took a sip. "It's good." Aria tried to detect the residual flavor on her tongue. It definitely wasn't plain lemonade. "Did you put lime in there too?"

"Yep. Do you like it?"

"Uh huh," and she took another sip.

"Good, cuz 2 more of those, and you won't remember the rest of tonight. Or most of tomorrow I bet."

Aria spit the last sip back into the glass and wiped the dribble off her chin with her hand. _I only had two sips. I'm sure it's fine._

Hanna gaped at her. "What are you doing! Since when have you become so anti-booze?" Hanna exclaimed. "I thought you drank all the time in Iceland. What are you, pregnant?"

Aria looked at her, then at Spencer and Emily who were also staring at her unusual behavior. She slowly began to nod her head.

"What!" Spencer cried. "You're pregnant!"

"No way!" Hanna said. "No, she's not guys, look, she's kidding." Hanna pointed at Aria's face, upon which sat a big grin.

"I'm not kidding," Aria promised.

"Well you have gained a little weight. I wasn't gonna say anything but…" Hanna said in her Hanna way.

"Hanna, shut up!" Spencer snapped. "Aria, you're serious? You're really pregnant?"

"Mmmhmm," Aria confirmed, nodding.

"Since when?"

"Since… April," Aria answered.

"April!" they all yelled in unison. "Why didn't you tell us?" Emily asked.

"I… I don't know! I thought I had a good reason, but now it seems so stupid. I should have told you guys right away! I guess I just needed to get used to the idea."

"For two months?" Spencer asked bitterly.

"More like one month," Aria said, less for accuracy's sake, more to make herself sound better. Spencer wasn't going for it. "I haven't told anyone," Aria said, trying to justify lying with another lie. "Not my mom or anyone." She had told a complete stranger, no, _2_ complete strangers, and multiple medical professionals, before telling her 3 best friends.

"Have you told Ezra?" Emily asked.

"Well, yeah, of course I told Ezra…" Aria said, but she could see how hurt her friends looked and understood why.

Emily was the first to move. She went over to Aria and gave her a hug. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm okay," she said, as Emily released her from the hug. "I'm better than okay. I mean, I try not to let the mood swings get the best of me, and the puking is not fun, or the constant urge to pee. I'm tired all the time and my back hurts, but other than that, I'm fine."

They all stared. Certain occurrences over the past few weeks started to make sense - the crying, the excessive sleeping, the random outbursts and subsequent apologies, the refusal of drinks, the subtle weight gain, the constant munching on granola bars or pretzel sticks at school and the sneaking down to the fridge during sleepovers, the need to reveal her relationship status to her parents. One by one, it all hit them.

"I'm really happy, you guys, I swear." She looked at them expectantly.

Hanna was the first to speak. "I'm gonna be an auntie!" she shrieked and ran to Aria jumping up and down. Aria hugged her friend and bounced with her, for the first time getting truly excited unrestrainedly about the baby. After that initial freak out, she and Ezra were always so serious about it and she knew her mom wouldn't be jumping for joy when she found out. Her dad might go buy a shotgun, and not for the purpose most other fathers would. Aria should have known she could count on her friends to be excited for her, even though she had lied to them for so long.

"Okay, I gotta stop," Aria said. "I might be sick." Hanna stepped away alarmed while Aria grabbed the counter and found her seat. The others had also backed up a wee bit, in case she hurled in their direction. "I'm good, I'm good," she assured them.

"Sorry I kept trying to pour liquor down your throat," Hanna said, "literally."

They chuckled.

Emily picked up Aria's drink and brought it to the sink. "Hey, what are you doing with that?" Hanna called. "That's still perfectly good!"

"Did you not see her spit in it, Hann?"

"Oh, right."

Emily poured it down the sink.

"Well, this calls for a celebration," Hanna said, taking a big sip. "What, you guys don't want?" she asked the others when they didn't join in.

Spencer had been awfully quiet until now. The news brought her back to her own near brush with teen pregnancy. "Is this really something to celebrate?" she asked meekly.

"Spencer!" Emily admonished.

"No, it's okay, Em. She's right. I'm 17 years old, not exactly prepared for this. But as scary as it is, and it _is_ really scary sometimes, I'm _really_ happy about it. So is Ezra. We are just crazy enough to make this work. I hope you guys can be happy for us."

"Of course," Emily said. "If you're happy, we're happy."

The enormous smile plastered on Hanna's face said it all.

Spencer hesitated. "If you're happy, I'm happy," she said, then gave Aria a hug.

"Thank you," she replied and smiled at her friend.

Spencer asked, "So was that actually an engagement ring?" The thought just occurred to her. If she'd been pregnant since April, he probably knew when he bought the ring. Spencer surmised she could have helped him pick out something better, then remembered she didn't endorse getting married so young.

"No," Aria laughed. "It's a promise ring of sorts," she said, fiddling with the ring again.

"Cuz I was gonna say… no diamonds, no nothing. Fitz is a cheapskate!" Spencer said, then pretended to duck.

"No," Aria said with a grin. "He's perfect," she said quietly while staring at the ring, spinning it around her finger.

Hanna, having finished her first drink, poured herself another. "Are you gonna have to like drop out of high school?" she asked bluntly.

"No," Aria said. "I haven't talked to the guidance counselor yet, but I'm pretty sure I can take summer classes and do extra credit in the fall. That plus the pottery class at Hollis should give me enough credits to graduate early."

"You won't be here for senior year?" Hanna pouted.

"I'll be _here_. Just not at school."

"What about next year? College?" Spencer asked.

"I'll probably stick close to home. I'm thinking Danby…" The idea of moving to California for school wasn't really an option anymore, nor was it necessary. The point of considering that school was to be able to be with Ezra, someplace no one knew them or could judge them. Circumstances had changed though, for the better. And Aria had done her research. Danby had everything she was looking for in a college and was now her first choice.

Emily's eyes brightened.

"It's only 25 minutes away and I'll try to work my schedule so Ezra or my mom or someone can watch the baby while I'm at class. Maybe I'll do some online classes too so I'm not always away." _Maybe._

"Seems like you thought of everything," Spencer said.

"I've had a lot of time to think," Aria said. "Guys, I'm really sorry for not telling you."

"We understand," Emily said. "We all keep secrets sometimes." They exchanged a knowing glance.

Hanna put down her drink and went back over to Aria. "You're gonna look so cute with a belly!" she exclaimed. "Can I touch it?"

The overenthusiastic girl placed a hand on Aria's stomach before Aria finished saying, "Uh, sure," and laughed as Hanna moved her fingers. "Stop that tickles!" Aria cried, pushing Hanna's hands away.

"Hanna, leave her alone!" Spencer scolded.

"Come on! Is this not the most exciting thing that's ever happened to any of us? How can you just stand there?" Hanna didn't give her a chance to answer before exclaiming to Aria, "Ohmigod, I saw the _cutest _top at the mall the other day. It was purple with teeny polka dots all over and the chiffon gathered at the waist here," Hanna described with her words and her hands. "You have to get it!"

"No, Hanna, I can't."

"You're right," she said, picking up her drink, "it might be out of style by then. When do you get the belly?" Hanna asked as if 'the belly' were some sort of electronic device you order through a catalog. She was trying to guess what color palette would be in that season.

"In a couple months probably, but that's not why I can't buy that shirt. No one knows about this. You can't tell."

"_Well d__uh!_" Hanna shouted and spilled a few drops of "lemonade" on the floor in the process. "You said that already!"

"You seriously can't say a word. You can't go to the mall tomorrow and be like, 'aww Aria would look so cute in this _maternity_ dress' because anyone could hear you." She swiveled around on her stool to address the rest of the group. Spencer stopped tugging on the paper towels to listen. "You guys can't treat me any differently or make any references to babies while we're at school or within earshot of _anybody_. This secret comes out on _my_ terms, got it?"

"We got it," Spencer agreed, as Emily said, "Of course, Aria, we won't tell. It goes without saying," though they both knew their secrets were rarely given the opportunity to come out on their own terms.

Aria turned again to face Hanna standing right next to her. "Hanna, swear." She pinched Hanna's lips together and said, "Your lips are zipped."

Hanna repeated what could only have been "my lips are zipped," though the words were impossible to distinguish. Aria released her, and said, "I'm gonna make you swear it again tomorrow when you're sober."

"I am sober," she retorted, but wasn't fooling anybody. "I know how to keep a secret." They all knew all too well how to keep a secret.

Spencer blotted up the spill with her feet then dropped the wet paper towel into the trash can. "Since you're not drinking the _lemonade_, can I get you anything?" Spencer asked Aria, "Water, cranberry juice…" and poked her head in the fridge.

"Do you have any chocolate milk?"

"Uhh, no, but I can make you some," she offered.

"Thanks. I saw someone with chocolate milk at lunch today and I've really wanted some ever since."

Aria proceeded to tell them all the crazy things she had been eating lately while Spencer stirred cocoa powder into a glass of milk.

"Here you go," Spencer said, setting the glass down in front of her.

"Good, now we can make a toast," Hanna said. She raised her half-empty glass while her friends raised their full ones. "To Aria."

"To Aria," they repeated and clinked their glasses all together.


	39. Chapter 39

"I told my friends about the baby," Aria told Ezra on the train to Philly, as he handed her her ticket to the art gallery opening they were headed to. They sat opposite each other and she had her feet, clad in lace-up peep-toe ankle boots, up next to him. She wore a short, geometric print, strapless dress and black blazer while Ezra donned a grey, striped button-down and dark necktie covered in a random safety-pin design. Aria had purchased this tie for him during a trip to the mall with Hanna, never being one to pass up a quirky accessory. Ezra's fashion-horizons had definitely expanded since he met Aria.

Ezra had been wondering when she might finally do that. "What did they say?"

"They couldn't believe it at first. Hanna thought I was making it up. But they're happy for me. For us. I don't know why I ever thought otherwise. They're my best friends, they will support me no matter what."

"I figured they would. I didn't understand why you didn't want to tell them." Ezra knew how close they were. He thought they shared everything, but he never questioned Aria's decision to not tell them right away. She hadn't steered them wrong yet.

Aria spun the gold band around her finger. "I… just liked keeping it to myself. I can't explain it. But I'm done with all that. Next week, or the week after, I think we should tell my parents."

Ezra gulped.

"Sometime after the ultrasound. I've been thinking about it a lot. We should all sit down for a meal and we should just tell them."

"You're right. We should."

"It's better they hear it from us first. Isn't that what you said about us?"

"I did. And it's true. We have to tell them sooner or later. I'm just a little worried about your dad. He gives me the cold shoulder when I happen to see him on campus. And your mom… I feel like she's starting to trust me. Now she's gonna hate me."

"She can't hate you for long. After the initial shock, they will get over it," Aria said optimistically. "Sooo," changing the subject, "are we gonna get a hotel in the city like last time?"

"I wish," he laughed, remembering having the time of their lives that evening. "You didn't have a curfew last time."

"We can say the trains broke down."

"I think she'll see right through that."

"Fine. But you should know, _Mr. Fitz_, a girl tends to get used to limos and hotels and jewelry," she added, wiggling her right hand out in front of her. "You're gonna need to step up your game if you want to keep me around in the manner to which I have become accustomed," and haughtily began fanning herself with her ticket.

"Duly noted," he said and grabbed that hand, pulling her onto his lap.

.

The exhibit was lovely and Aria called to check in with her mom as promised. Ezra had made reservations at a French vegan restaurant he'd heard good things about, but when Aria saw the menu, they decided to go out for Mexican instead. They wound up taking an earlier train than planned and it started raining on the car ride home from the train station. Aria wanted ice cream, so they stopped at a 7-11, the only place open, for a pint of Ben & Jerry's. He kept the car running while she ran inside.

As they pulled away, he said, "You're all wet."

In a fake sultry voice, she said, "I sure am," and shook water droplets everywhere.

Recoiling from the water being flung at his face, and laughing at her tone, he guffawed, "Are you _trying_ to get us killed?" He stepped right into that one.

She giggled. "Calm down. No one's on the road. Do me a favor, pull over."

"Why? Are you alright?" he asked, looking over to check on her.

"I'm fine. Just pull over, right here." She pointed to an alley coming up on their right.

Ezra turned the steering wheel and asked, "Why are we pulling over?" dubiously, recognizing the location.

Aria unbuckled her seatbelt and then unbuckled his. For a moment, all they heard was the sound of the windshield wipers squeaking across the glass. "I want to recreate that first night, that night I'll never forget," she answered seriously and looked in his eyes.

"Aria…"

"I'm not expected home for an hour."

"It's a bad idea," he said, but his defenses were weakening.

While he was speaking, she had already begun undoing the laces of her boots and dropped them to the floor. "I think it's a good idea. I think, this time," she rose to her knees, "...will be even better, because this time," she shrugged off her wet coat, "...we can eat ice cream after." She raised one eyebrow and glanced at the paper bag on the floor.

He couldn't stifle the laugh.

She climbed onto his lap and whispered in his ear, "And this time, I'll even take off my underwear." It had occurred to Aria on more than one occasion that in the time it would have taken her to take them off, he would have changed his mind, and they would not have been where they were today. She considered it the best decision she ever made. She pulled back to see his face and asked, "What else do I have to say? I promise I won't blast the horn."

She had him at the ice-cream remark, but Ezra wanted to see how close she'd come to begging. Laughingly, he gave in, "I just can't say no to you."

* * *

[Aria is wearing the outfit she wore in 2.16 Let the Water Hold Me Down, when she goes to the play with Holden and walks toward Ezra in slow motion.

Ezra is wearing what he wore in 2.17 The Blond Leading the Blind

Links to screencaps of both are in my profile. ]


	40. Chapter 40

Placeholder for new content.


	41. Chapter 41

1 week to PLL! Yippee!

* * *

Caleb knocked on the door of apartment 3B, guitar strapped to his back. "Hey," he said when Aria answered the door.

"Hey," she said, smiling, "come on in," waving him inside.

"It smells great in here," he said, taking the place in. There were books _everywhere_. He wasn't surprised seeing as Ezra taught English. Ezra had attempted to engage him in conversation about contemporary American literature at the karaoke bar, but Caleb shut it down quickly, changing the subject to music, where they shared some common ground. It turned out they were both big fans of Radiohead and Nirvana, and they spent a good chunk of the night discussing how much of a genius Jeff Buckley was.

"I made cinnamon buns. Would you like one?"

"Sure." He set the guitar down against the back of the sofa and Aria gave him a plate.

"I still don't know how we got roped into this," she said as she transferred the cinnamon bun to the plate with a spatula.

"Sure you do. Thanks. Mona told Hanna she needed more talent for the talent show and Hanna volunteered us." Caleb took a bite. "Ohmigod this is delicious," he added with his mouth full.

"Thanks." Aria set the tray back down on the counter. "The show is tomorrow. A little notice would have been nice."

"Hanna is Hanna, what can I say?" He took another bite. "She's also 'super jealous,' her words, that I'm getting to see your apartment before she does."

Aria laughed. "Does she expect us to write a song in a day? In one afternoon?"

"Probably, but I'm sure they wouldn't be opposed to us singing a song we already know."

"Good. Cuz that's what we're doing whether they like it or not." Caleb laughed, and when Aria blinked, what was left of the cinnamon bun in his hand had disappeared completely. "Do you have anything in mind?" she asked.

"A few? What about you?"

"No, but I thought we could look at my iTunes library and narrow it down," Aria said as she walked over to the desk.

"Good plan."

Aria knew, when Caleb suggested "Papa Don't Preach," that they would be great friends. Caleb took everything in stride. She liked that about him. Aria truly did not care Caleb knew, she would have told him herself, but wondered what part of "_You can't tell_" Hanna didn't understand.

They ruled out "We Are Young" because it required too many instruments to sound good. Plus the school wouldn't find the drug and alcohol references in the lyrics acceptable. Caleb and Aria eliminated anything he'd never heard before since he wouldn't have enough time to learn it, then tested out a few options before landing on a keeper.

Ezra walked in while they were practicing the first time. Aria paused mid-lyric and got up to greet him. She threw her arms around him and said, "How was your day?"

"It was good, how was yours?" he replied, with a kiss.

"Pretty good," she said, disengaging. "Caleb is here, I hope you don't mind. We're practicing a song for the talent show."

"Hey, Caleb," he said, noticing Caleb sitting on the floor.

"Hey." Caleb gave him a little salute.

"When did you sign up for the talent show?" Ezra asked as he dropped his briefcase against the wall.

"I was signed up for it today. Hanna volunteered me."

"That was very smart of her," he said. "You'll definitely win."

"Nobody _wins_ the talent show," she retorted, then realized he was joking.

"We'll see about that," he said. "I'll actually be there. Mrs. Welch invited me a while ago."

"Is this _Mrs. Welch_ someone I need to worry about?" Aria teased.

"Well, we have been carrying on a torrid love affair…" Ezra joked. "We're running away together. Did I forget to mention it?"

Caleb was amused by their banter and the image of Ezra and Mrs. Welch together.

"Jerk!" She pretended to shove him. "I should have known…" She _tsk_ed at him and they laughed. "We'll try to stay out of your way if you have work to do."

"You're fine. I'm gonna try and fix something for dinner."

Aria had begun to turn away, then spun back around to say, "Uh oh. Should I call in for pizza now, or later?"

"Ye of little faith," he said, kissing her forehead and sending her off.

Ezra rummaged around for a suitable pot and pan and pulled a box of whole-wheat spaghetti off a shelf. "Caleb, you staying?"

"Depends what you're making."

"Smart man... You catch on quick," said Aria, who had returned to her place on the floor across from Caleb.

"Watch it," Ezra warned, "you might hurt my feelings and I'll never cook you dinner again."

"Some big loss that'd be," Aria joked.

Ezra feigned offense and Aria stuck her tongue out at him. To Caleb he said, "I'm going to attempt spaghetti and sautéed vegetables with a peanut sauce." Ezra had found the recipe online and it seemed easy enough.

"That sounds good," Caleb said.

"Don't be so quick to agree. We'll probably wind up sprinkling gummy bears on top if Aria gets her way," Ezra said, looking over his shoulder while he ran the faucet.

"Gummy bears taste good on top of everything. You're just too closed-minded to admit it. ..Back me up here, Caleb."

Caleb raised an eyebrow and bit the inside of his cheek, looking off to the side and remaining silent.

"Traitor!" Aria cried, and kicked his knee, playfully attempting to knock him over. "I invite you here as my guest, feed you delicious pastries, and serenade you with a beautiful song. And you take _his_ side?" Ezra laughed to himself as he bent down and retrieved some vegetables from the crisper in the fridge.

"He offered me _peanut sauce_," Caleb countered as if it far surpassed her paltry offerings.

"Which he'll probably burn... Trust me, we're having pizza tonight. I bet you 5 bucks."

"I can hear you..." Ezra said from the kitchen, beginning to chop the veggies.

"You're on," Caleb took the bet.

"Thank you," Ezra said, appreciatively.

Aria ignored him. "Have you ever even tried gummy bears on top of anything? Besides ice cream."

"Can't say that I have."

"So you can't judge."

"Is that the craziest thing you've eaten since you've been pregnant?"

The question which had been in the back of Ezra's mind was just answered. "You think it's a pregnancy craving?" he said. "No. She's always had a thing about gummy bears."

"My friend Holden used to sneak me some every time we had a playdate because my mom had banned them from the house. Gummy bears are like crack. You seriously shouldn't give me any. Ever."

Ezra mouthed, "don't do it" from the kitchen and moved his hand back and forth to reinforce the point.

"Okay…" Caleb considered bringing her gummy bears one day just to see what would happen, then decided to ask Hanna about it later instead. "What is the craziest thing you've eaten?"

Ezra and Aria exchanged a significant look. "I'll tell him," Aria said. "Yesterday, I was gonna make brownies, and I went in the fridge to get the eggs and I saw a jar of pickles in there, the sliced kind, for sandwiches, you know? And I had this impulse... to dip them in the brownie mix. And it tasted good."

"That's.. pretty weird, but I wouldn't say it's weirder than gummy bears and spaghetti."

"It gets worse," Ezra said. "I walked in and I found her panfrying them. She had coated each slice in the brownie batter and was literally frying them. In oil. In a pan. And when she was done, she drizzled hot sauce on top." Ezra hadn't been able to share any of this stuff with anyone besides Aria because no one knew she was pregnant. His best friend Hardy knew, but Ezra didn't exactly call him with daily updates of Aria's eating habits or details about how rough it was sometimes, mostly on her. It felt a little isolating sometimes to not be able to join in a conversation with a work friend about kids, or mention it in passing to an acquaintance. Being able to talk openly and joke around with her friend made Ezra feel like everything was normal. It was kind of a load off to have no secrets for this one evening.

"That's... disgusting."

"It was delicious," Aria insisted.

"I'll have to take your word for it." Caleb turned to Ezra. "And you let her tell people you're a bad cook?"

"Exactly!" Ezra knew he liked Caleb for a reason.

Aria shook her head. "You just don't know."

"How do you prevent yourself from doing that at home? No one knows, right? I assume it'd raise a few questions..."

"It takes a _lot_ of willpower. But usually I just come over here when I wanna eat crazy shit. Ezra is always happy to oblige. Even if he thinks I'm nuts." She grinned at him and he grinned back over his shoulder.

"When are you gonna tell them? If you don't mind me asking."

"Soonish," Aria said. "Tell Ezra how you suggested I tell them."

Ezra turned his back to the stove to face them.

"I said she should sing 'Papa Don't Preach' at the talent show tomorrow."

Ezra laughed. "That would be.. memorable... Then I could join you on stage and we could make them watch us make out to really drive the point home."

"It's an excellent plan, right?" Aria joked.

"You guys would wind up on YouTube..."

"Or the 6 o'clock news..."

"Let's _not_ do that then, k?" Ezra said. It was fine to joke about it, but Ezra really was scared of telling her parents. Terrified actually. They forced smiles at each other, both thinking the same thing.

"Okay, we should practice this song at least once so we don't get _boo_ed off the stage tomorrow," Aria said, turning her attention back to Caleb.

"No one would ever boo you," Ezra said before turning his attention back to the meal he had not burned. Yet.

Aria and Caleb resumed their song. Ezra watched her as she sang so effortlessly, amazed yet again by her beauty and talent and wondered what he ever did to deserve her.

* * *

[Papa Don't Preach is a Madonna song about a young girl who gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby despite her father not liking her boyfriend - link in my profile.

The stats were pretty high yesterday and the day before (I guess relatively highish cuz I don't know what other stories average) so I hope that means you're all enjoying it. If you haven't left a comment yet, I'd love to hear from you! ]


	42. Chapter 42

[Flashback]

"I was wrong." Ezra moved closer. "Forgive me."

Aria set her jaw. "No," she said, almost inaudibly. _I'm not giving in that easily._

He moved even closer. She could feel his breath on her face. "Forgive me."

_Who am I kidding?_ Aria dove for his face and kissed him with such a ferocity she had never kissed anyone before. Why did he have such a hold on her? She didn't care. She only ached for his touch at this moment and all other thoughts were pushed aside. She couldn't breathe unless his lips were on hers. He began to suffocate the instant they lost contact, so he would pull her back in to keep their source of oxygen intact. The sexually-charged atmosphere became dizzying and overwhelming for both of them. Ezra held onto her face, pulling her so close, it almost hurt, but she knew it would hurt more if he let go.

They had met in the middle, and kissed each other hungrily with the same amount of force, but now Ezra began pushing her backward until her back was up against the passenger side door. Ezra knelt awkwardly in his seat, lying on top of her twisted form. One hand felt blindly behind him for the keys. He turned off the ignition and pressed her harder against the door. "Ow!" she cried when his hand landed on the ends her hair, painfully tearing a few strands from her scalp. She grabbed the section and yanked it out from under his hand. "Sorry," he whispered, then continued his onslaught of kisses. He couldn't help it.

Her body was twisted uncomfortably beneath the weight of his and having her neck pressed against the hard glass started to hurt. "Can we, s-slow down a minute?" she asked breathlessly. He opened his eyes and started to regain his senses. Ezra pulled back and said, "I'm sorry," sitting back in his seat. "I'm sorry." He pressed his fingers to his face, shielding it from her view. "I shouldn't've done that." _What is wrong with you!_ He was never the aggressor. Something had come over him. There were always sparks, big ones, but he had always been able to keep it in check, as had she, until now. Not seeing her for over a week, but thinking about her every second, and then seeing her with someone else, was too much. He had thought letting her go on with her life was the right thing to do, but found he wasn't strong enough and couldn't stand her thinking he'd given up on them, just like that. He really did want to make it work.

Aria sat upright and took his hand. "No, it's okay," she said. "Just slower." She put his hand on her neck and he looked into her eyes. "Come here." He met her in the middle again and kissed her tenderly. His hand moved to her cheek, then cradled her head. She held on to his wrist to make sure he wouldn't pull away. She knew any minute he might change his mind and refused to let him. While they kissed in a much more intimate manner than before, they were unaware of the person watching them and leaving a disturbing message on the back window. They were also unaware of the call Hanna was placing to Aria at that moment to warn them.

Aria pulled him closer. Somewhere in the back of her mind she felt remorse for stringing Noel along and technically cheating on him right now. She had been on the other side of that raw deal more than once and hated the part of herself which was allowing herself to do it to someone else. She did genuinely like Noel, but the feelings she had for him were nothing compared to what she felt for Ezra. Never did the word 'soulmate' appear in her mind when she thought of Noel. Never was his face the last thing she saw when she closed her eyes to go to sleep. Never could he make her so frustrated and miserable, yet at the same time feel so alive and mind-numbingly happy. Never would she kiss him the way she was kissing Ezra right now, so affectionately, and earnestly, like their lips were made to have the other's pressed against them, moving together in this divine manner. No one else made her body temperature rise 2 degrees with a single glance, or set her skin ablaze with a single touch, or made her lose track of every errant thought when she felt his tongue in her mouth. She never wanted anyone the way she wanted him.

Ezra had long since stopped thinking about the consequences. He looked in her eyes, ready for this to happen again, and she looked back at him, like there was nothing in the world she wanted more. He gave her a tiny smile then looked away and reached under her seat to move it back. _Are those combat boots?_ Her wardrobe often amused him. He hesitated for a split second wondering if he should take them off, but remembered her words. _Slow_. As she and the chair slid backward, she noticed her phone lit up with a text on the screen. It was a reflex to pick it up and read it, despite the current circumstances. Had it not been an automatic action, she probably would have ignored it, even though she knew her friends were out there, closer than ever to unraveling the mystery of A. Had she not placed the phone so visibly on the armrest, she would be unzipping her Camp Mona sweatshirt and kicking off her boots at that very moment. Ezra was hovering over her lap, and pulled the side lever, sending the back of her seat to a near horizontal position. As she flew backwards, she muttered, "Shit."

Hanna: S.O.S. I know who A is. Heading to the parking lot

Ezra drew back into his own seat, saying "What?" scared he had hurt her, or that he was moving too fast again. Why was he assuming she would want to do this minutes after she just took him back? All of a sudden, everything felt so _wrong_. He was utterly ashamed of his actions, of his selfishness and loss of control. He saw her sitting up, empty space swimming behind her, holding the phone up to her face, and she looked scared.

It was the worst timed text in history. She was momentarily paralyzed with indecision, then snapped the hell out of it. "I have to go," she said quickly. "My friends are looking for me. I snuck away to meet you, I have to get back."

"Is that it?" He doubted she could be reacting so strongly to a text. It must be something he did. He misread the signals. She was still angry. "Cuz I'm really sorry about this. I-I won't let it happen again."

She yanked on the door handle and pushed it open. "No, that's not it! I just have to go!" She poked her head back in for a very quick second to say, "I'll talk to you tomorrow," then slammed the door behind her. _Dammit_. As much as she wanted to think of a way to get this moment back, to make him realize he hadn't done anything wrong, her mind was overwhelmed by the knowledge she was about to find out who A was once and for all. Any minute she'd be able to put a face and a name to the anonymous person who had been tormenting her and her friends for over 2 months.

Ezra was confused. And worried. Should he go after her? She's running around in the woods in the dark. Where were her friends? Why were they even here? Ezra decided not to go after her. He'd caused too much trouble already. Who knew what scene he might stumble into if he ran after her calling her name through the darkness, what kind of spectacle he would cause. He just got her back and wouldn't risk losing her again. What the hell was he thinking tonight? He wasn't thinking at all and that was the problem. He restored his resolve to never let it happen again. Not until the circumstances changed.

Ezra leaned over the passenger seat to pull the levers to make it return to its original position. Then he turned on the car and drove home.

* * *

[Thank you Clara! And while I'm at it, thank you TotalCowGirl, KatyForYou, hiding. my. heart, Caligirl28, SolitudeMyLove, sandra1992, and GilmoreGirls945 (and anonymous, whoever you are) for your comments! ]


	43. Chapter 43

The talent show was filled with both talented and untalented students - Irish step dancers, ballet dancers, various players of instruments, a juggler, a unicyclist, and other musicians. The swim team decided to do a dance routine, which Emily joined in on, and Spencer brilliantly performed a scene from MacBeth. Hanna talked up Aria and Caleb's singing abilities so much that Mona made them the finale. She didn't care that they hadn't picked a finale-type of song as long as they sounded good.

Aria's parents sat together in the second row of the auditorium while Ezra was seated a few feet to the left in the first next to Mrs. Welch. She was the faculty advisor for the show, so she wasn't in her seat much. During intermission, they all made pleasant conversation in the lobby, excluding Byron, who excused himself, but returned before the next act began. Ella had known Ezra would be there, even before she'd known Aria would be performing, because Mrs. Welch went on and on about it. She hoped the two men might strike up a conversation, but she was fooling herself by thinking her husband would suddenly change his attitude.

Toward the end of the second act, Mrs. Welch came from backstage and whispered to Ezra, "You play guitar right?"

"Uh, I can play a little, why?" Ezra owned a guitar, but hadn't picked it up in quite a while. It had been years since he'd played in front of anybody, mainly because he thought himself not very good, but also because the opportunity hadn't presented itself. The last time was at a house party off-campus during sophomore year. The owner had a guitar lying around and, on a whim, Ezra picked it up and plucked a few notes. Somehow this inspired a group of other partygoers to retrieve some drums from their van and start up a drum circle, which drowned out the sound of Ezra's guitar-playing, and the music from the owner's sound system, and just about everything else in a 40-foot radius. The party was broken up by the cops.

"One of the students isn't feeling well and we need someone to fill in," she explained.

"This is a student talent show," he stated the obvious. "There are no students?"

"The other boy who played guitar went home already. Here, I have the sheet music." She handed him a piece of paper. "Do you think you could play this?"

It was Aria's song.

"Uhhh…"

"I don't want the poor girl to have to go up there alone. She's supposed to close the show."

"I can play it, but how would it look?" he asked, hoping for a way out of this. Suddenly the joke he made yesterday about joining her on stage didn't seem so funny.

"It's fine, don't be silly." Ezra Fitz, she thought, so concerned about impropriety. She found it charming. "So you'll do it?"

It kinda felt like he had no choice. "I guess."

"Great. Come with me." She led him backstage.

.

Aria was unaware Caleb had gone home sick. She hadn't seen him all day, but Hanna had said he was around there somewhere when the girls passed each other in the hall earlier. When Hanna decided to take Caleb home, they left the guitar backstage and explained to Mrs. Welch what was going on, asking her to tell Aria. However, Mrs. Welch failed to tell Aria anything.

She walked out on stage a bit blinded by the lights. She wore a black and white sleeveless shift dress with layers of lace trim at the bottom, dark stockings, and heels which clicked as she walked. Aria gave her mom and dad a little wave, then looked to the side seeing an empty stool. She took her seat and searched the audience for Ezra, but couldn't find him. Then she heard Caleb walk out and begin playing.

"What is this?" Byron asked his wife, irritated.

"I don't know," she answered, just as concerned as he was.

"_I hopelessly, helplessly wonder why / everything gotta change around me / I'd tell it to your face / But you lost your face along the way / And I'd say it on the phone / If I thought you were alone / Why do things have to change?"_

"_Oooo," _Caleb came in, but it wasn't Caleb. She turned to look, and faltered on her next line when she saw Ezra sitting there on stage with her.

"_But you don't need my pictures on your wall,_" she tried to catch up. "_You say you need no one_"

"_Oooo_," Ezra sang, just like he'd heard Caleb practice. He heard Aria falter, but wouldn't look up. He didn't want to ruin her performance.

She turned back to the audience. "_And you don't need my secret midnight call  
__I guess you need no one  
__Is anybody waiting at home for you?  
__'Cause it's time that will tell if it's heaven if it's hell or if it's  
__Anybody waiting at home for you?  
__'Cause it's time that will tell this tale_

_You're in and out up and down  
__Wonder if you're lost or found  
__But I got my hands on you  
__Are you strong enough to tow the line?  
__Are you gonna make me yours?  
__Or do I make you mine?  
__I'm in and out I'm up and down  
__Wonder if I'm lost or found  
__But I need your hands on me now_"

After that one line, Aria never stumbled again. She knew this song by heart and could sing it in her sleep. Even though her mind was still trying to process the events which led up to this and what people must be thinking, she was able to sing the song beautifully, with feeling. Ezra kept up with her, playing the right notes, slightly less skillfully than Caleb, and singing at the right times. He refrained from harmonizing on the chorus like Caleb had planned to do because people would think they had planned to go on together, and, also, because singing while playing was never his strong suit. At the end, the audience applauded and Aria gave a little bow. Then she exited the stage in the same direction as Ezra.

"What happened to Caleb?" she asked.

"He went home sick."

Mrs. Welch took the stage.

"Did you volunteer to fill in?"

"God, no. Mrs. Welch asked me. She knew I played guitar."

Four things happened at once. Aria said, "How is it she knew that, and I didn't?," Mrs. Welch began thanking the audience for coming, Ella was out of her seat, heading toward the curtained stairs at the side of stage, and a strap holding up a bundle of 2x4s near the ceiling came loose.

"Watch out!" Ezra yelled and pushed Aria against the wall. He covered her with his body as pieces of lumber plummeted to the ground inches away. Aria cowered into the wall underneath him. One beam glanced Ezra's shoulder.

The loud noise was piped through the speakers in the auditorium full of students and teachers and parents, courtesy of the microphone attached to Caleb's acoustic guitar, which had been amplifying the sound of the strings during the performance, and, also, the sound of their voices backstage.

"We seem to be having some technical difficulties," Mrs. Welch explained. The audience covered their ears during the cacophony.

"Are you alright?" Ezra asked when it was safe.

"Uh huh, are you?" she replied, looking up at him.

"I'm fine. Where did that come from?" he asked, looking up at the ceiling. "We could have been seriously hurt."

Ezra didn't realize how scared Aria was until she began shaking. He held her tightly and asked, "Are you sure? Is-"

"Psssst, PSSST," Ella said through a cloud of dust. "The microphone is on. Everyone can hear you!"

Ezra looked down at the guitar on the floor and the device hooked onto the front, then back up at Ella, who was making her way towards them around the giant pile of wood. He reluctantly let go of Aria, and reached down to pick it up. He found the off switch.

"Are you okay?" Ella asked when she neared them. While Aria hugged her mom tight, she looked down. Burned into every one of the 2x4s was the unmistakeable letter **A**.

* * *

[Link to Hopeless by Train, and Aria's outfit in my profile.

Thank you to my latest anonymous reviewer! I truly appreciate it! And thank you to maddie for your comment. The flashbacks give the backstory and I sprinkle them throughout. There will be another next week and then they won't be spaced so close together anymore. Thanks for the feedback! ]


	44. Chapter 44

The first thing Ezra suggested during the aftermath was that Aria get checked out, just in case. Aria insisted she was fine and Ella, having seen nearly the whole thing and knowing Aria hadn't been hurt, said something about him being too overprotective. He dropped the subject. Logically, he knew he hadn't pushed her hard, she hadn't sustained any physical trauma, but he would always rather be safe than sorry. He _was_ extremely protective of her, especially now in her current condition. Ezra would have told everyone and dealt with the inevitable blowout had it been necessary. He would do anything to keep her, _them_, safe.

As well as worrying about Aria's safety, directly afterwards, Ella and Ezra were concerned with what the audience had heard them say. They sussed out Mrs. Welch's reaction when she rushed backstage after the commotion and determined no one heard anything to make them think anything inappropriate was going on. Mrs. Welch declared Ezra a hero, and Ella agreed, with slightly less enthusiasm, while Ezra tried to downplay it. She also described him as a man of many talents to just about anyone who would listen, saying he went above and beyond the call of duty both on stage and off. Ezra wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around Aria again, but couldn't with other faculty members and curious students buzzing around. Aria knew it as well and stood close to Ella while the whole thing was hashed out over and over again.

During a quieter moment, Ella questioned Ezra about why he went out there in the first place. He explained he knew the song and didn't want to leave Aria hanging, plus Mrs. Welch had been pretty insistent. Ella understood, having met Mrs. Welch, but reiterated that she'd like to keep their private lives private for the time being, and that included not singing love songs to each other on stage in front of the whole school. Ezra refrained from explaining the song was more about heartbreak than love, and took her point.

.

Later on, Aria invited her parents out for dinner the following week. She asked her mom to get her dad to please give them a chance and Ella managed to convince Byron to join. Despite all of Ella's reservations about Aria and Ezra's relationship, she recognized that Ezra may have literally saved her daughter's life and persuaded Byron that Ezra deserved a chance and one dinner wouldn't kill him. Byron was reluctant, but ultimately agreed.

.

Ezra was shaken by the incident at the talent show, not so much in fear for his own life, but for what could have happened to Aria had he not been there. He knew it upset her when he talked about 'what ifs', so he didn't, but he still wondered to himself every day if they were doing the right thing. He knew he loved her more than anything in the world and when they were together, it felt _right_, but at the same time, he still wondered if Aria would be better off without him. If they had simply met 2 years later, or if he'd been born 2 years earlier, their lives might be on a different path. For the first time though, he was able to set aside these thoughts, because he realized he had come very close to losing Aria to a freak accident. It simply became impossible to imagine his life without her anymore.

.

"It's not just me I have to worry about anymore!" Aria yelled at her friends who had gathered in Spencer's room. "Do you know how close we came to being buried under those beams? They missed us by _this_ much!" She held out her thumb and forefinger an inch apart.

"Aria, we know!" Spencer yelled back.

"Then what are we going to do about it?"

Emily put her arm around Aria. "I don't think there's anything we can do," Emily said gently.

But Aria broke free of Emily's grasp. "Why not? A has gone too far. We have to tell somebody. I almost let it spill right then and there, but I know it's not only my decision."

"This isn't the first time A has tried to hurt us," Hanna reminded them, knowing all too well what A was capable of.

"I know," Aria said sympathetically. Hanna was in the hospital for a week after A hit her with they car. "But this is different." Aria couldn't help feeling that way even if it was somewhat selfish. An assault against her was also an assault against her baby, so she couldn't allow anything to happen to her. She had to be doubly cautious now.

"We get it," Emily said. They all _did_ get it.

"Is it possible A doesn't know you're pregnant?" Spencer asked. "I mean, you did a pretty good job keeping it secret…"

"I doubt it," Aria answered, though she had not heard anything from A specifically on the subject, except possibly the text which had read 'Aria and Ezra sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.' That was it. No threat, no demand, no mention of the 'baby in a baby carriage.' Aria was left to assume it was implied. "A knows everything."

"Let's say we do tell," said Spencer. "What would we say? They are sure it was just an accident. The school got some sort of citation for hazardous safety conditions. Nobody believes it was done on purpose. We could never prove it."

"She's right, Aria," Emily said. "Much as I'd like to get my hands on A and ring their neck for doing this to you, it won't do any good." A had had his or her hands around Emily's neck once. She wouldn't mind having the opportunity to do the same.

Aria sighed and sank into the edge of the bed. She knew they would ultimately reach the same conclusion they always did. A always had the upper hand. It's no use fighting back.

"What if A tries it again?"

"It won't happen," Spencer tried to assure her. "This was A's way of reminding us he/she/it is still out there. It was probably meant to shake you up more than anything." Spencer would _not_ let A win at whatever game it was they were playing. But if she was honest with herself, she knew she was not in control here to any extent.

"Well it worked."


	45. Chapter 45

Aria and Ezra went for their first ultrasound appointment in the hospital that Thursday. They agreed not to touch each other at all in the halls or the waiting room in case somebody who knew them happened to see them, deciding the explanation, if pressed, would be that Ezra was friends with her dad and gave her a ride. Keeping their distance actually required a great deal of conscious effort on both their parts. They naturally gravitated toward each other, always holding hands or walking with his arm around her when they felt it was safe. They had gotten used to this freedom lately during their excursions outside Rosewood.

Inside the exam room, the technician instructed Aria to lift her blouse and she applied a clear gel. Ezra stood next to her, holding her hand.

"This is your baby's heartbeat…" the woman said.

Ezra's world stood still. He recalled all the times he had felt Aria's heart beating under his hand, against his chest, beneath his ear. His most beloved and intimate memories of them together came flooding back, like he was in those moments once again. He found it impossible to conceive how this quick thrumming existed inside her.

"…and this is your baby." She turned the monitor towards them.

Tears welled in Aria's eyes. _She's real. She's real._

_._

On their way out, Ezra made a follow-up appointment with the receptionist. He was given a copy of the ultrasound video; Aria had the photo in her purse.

Aria leaned on a column nearby waiting for him, imagining what their baby would look like. Whose nose would she have? Whose eyes? She thought back to a scary night a few weeks ago when she feared all of her new hopes and dreams were crashing down and how Ezra had tried to reassure her in any way he could think of. "_She'll look just like you,_" he had said. "_She'll have rosy pink cheeks, that flush when she's nervous, and a button nose that twitches right before she sneezes. And gorgeous hair, the color of mahogany. And her eyes, she'll have magnificent hazel eyes just like yours and she'll be the most beautiful little girl anyone has ever seen, inside and out._" Although he was simply describing her, it helped. It had really helped.

As Aria's lips curled softly upward in recollection of what was simultaneously a good memory and a bad one, Wren poked his head around the corner.

"Hi. You're Spencer's friend, right?"

Aria looked up, pulled out of her reverie. Her mascara was a bit smudged. "Aria," she said. "You're Wren."

"Indeed I am.. How is she?" he asked.

Standing up straighter, Aria replied, "She's good."

"Good," Wren smiled adorably. Aria could see how Spencer would get involved with him. "I'm glad to hear it. Would you do me a favor? Tell her I say hi and.. I'm sorry for being immature."

Aria noted how Wren seemed to be under the impression she knew there had been something going on between him and Spencer. Before she had a chance to answer, Ezra walked over to them.

"Wren. Kingston," Wren introduced himself.

"Ezra," Ezra said, shaking the other man's hand.

"Wren is a friend of Spencer's," Aria explained. Wren looked at her expectantly. "I'll pass along the message," she agreed.

"Thank you. I appreciate it." Common sense taking over, Wren asked, "Is everything alright by the way?"

"Yep. Just a check-up."

Wren noticed the square CD case in Ezra's hand then looked back up at Aria, putting 2 and 2 together. "Great. It was good running into you. Thanks again." Aria smiled. Turning to Ezra, Wren said, "Good to meet you."

"Yeah, same here," Ezra agreed, and with a friendly nod, Wren walked off.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

She answered, "Mmhm," as they started walking.

"So he's a friend of Spencer's?"

"Ex-boyfriend actually," Aria said, unsure if the term was accurate, but probably close enough.

Ezra didn't expect that. "Really?"

"And her sister's ex-fiancé," she added, to really throw him for a loop.

"Wow," he said. "And I thought our relationship was controversial."

Aria chuckled. "Don't tell her I told you. It's sort of a secret."

"I won't say anything," Ezra promised, sidestepping a wheel chair abandoned in the hallway.

She wasn't worried. "..Are you ready for this dinner later?" Aria asked as they turned a corner.

"I wouldn't use the word 'ready.'" There really was no preparing for a dinner like this.

"Me neither," she agreed. "But like I said, if things aren't going well, we don't have to tell them tonight." Aria hadn't said she had a big announcement to make. Backing out at any time was still an option.

"Whether it's tonight, or tomorrow, or next week, we have to tell them sooner or later and I'm sure their reaction will be the same whenever we do. And it won't be pretty."

She couldn't argue with him there. What would they say? Every time she thought about making the announcement, she'd imagine the look on her parents' faces and get discouraged, putting it out of her mind to worry about later. Should they prepare something ahead of time or let it come naturally, unrehearsed, as was her preferred course of action? She decided she would be the one to talk. That would be best. '_So I wanted_ _to tell you guys something I've been doing lately. ..Nope, it's not another_ _ceramics class, but close! I've been... incubating your grandchild! Isn't that exciting?'_ Nah, it was a little too indirect. '_Y__o, I'm preggers, deal with it.'_ That would be perhaps a little _too_ direct. '_Mom, dad? You know Ezra and I love each other, very much, and we wanted to tell you something that we're both really happy about. I know this will come as a shock, please just try to keep an open mind when I tell you… we're having a baby. Surprise!' _Not bad. She would leave off the '_surprise!'_ bit at the end, she decided wisely. All 3 visions ended with Ella in tears and Ezra spurting blood, the result of the fork Byron stabbed into his jugular. Aria shook her head to erase the unpleasant image.

"We could just not tell them," he suggested after she hadn't said a word for a full 30 seconds. They'd gone through 2 sets of double doors in the interim, approaching the third and final set of the exit. "Hop a plane to Guam and send a postcard - 'You're gonna be grandparents!' ..Weather the storm from afar."

"We could wait and let Maeby tell them," Aria suggested.

"Now there's an idea!"

* * *

[Aria's wearing the black and purple star print blouse she wore in 2.23 Eye of the Beholder (without that hideous skirt) - Link in profile.

Please, please leave reviews! Especially for the next few chapters. I really want to know what you guys think. I know a handful of you are enjoying it (you know who you are), but I know more people are reading. If you like something, tell me! :)

To ScoutFinch: Really? That's awesome! And thank you! ]


	46. Chapter 46

Aria and Ezra went for their first ultrasound appointment in the hospital. They agreed not to touch each other at all in the halls or the waiting room in case somebody who knew them happened to see them, deciding the explanation, if pressed, would be that Ezra was friends with her dad and gave her a ride. Keeping their distance actually required a great deal of conscious effort on both their parts. They naturally gravitated toward each other, always holding hands or walking with his arm around her when they felt it was safe. They had gotten used to this freedom lately during their excursions outside Rosewood.

Inside the exam room, the technician instructed Aria to lift her blouse and she applied a clear gel. Ezra stood next to her, holding her hand.

"This is your baby's heartbeat…" the woman said.

Ezra's world stood still. He recalled all the times he had felt Aria's heart beating under his hand, against his chest, beneath his ear. His most beloved and intimate memories of them together came flooding back, like he was in those moments once again. He found it impossible to conceive how this quick thrumming existed inside her.

"…and this is your baby." She turned the monitor towards them.

Tears welled in Aria's eyes. _She's real. She's real._

_._

On their way out, Ezra made a follow-up appointment with the receptionist. He was given a copy of the ultrasound video. Aria had the photo in her purse.

Aria leaned on a column nearby waiting for him, imagining what their baby would look like. Whose nose would she have? Whose eyes? She thought back to a scary night a few weeks ago when she feared all of her new hopes and dreams were crashing down and how Ezra had tried to reassure her in any way he could think of. "_She'll look just like you,_" he had said. "_She'll have rosy pink cheeks, that flush when she's nervous, and a button nose that twitches right before she sneezes. And gorgeous hair, the color of mahogany. And her eyes, she'll have magnificent hazel eyes just like yours and she'll be the most beautiful little girl anyone has ever seen, inside and out._" Although he was simply describing her, it helped. It really helped.

As Aria's lips curled softly upward in recollection of what was simultaneously a good memory and a bad one, Wren poked his head around the corner.

"Hi. You're Spencer's friend, right?"

Aria looked up, pulled out of her reverie. Her mascara was a bit smudged. "Aria," she said. "You're Wren."

"Indeed I am.. How is she?" he asked.

"She's good," Aria said, standing up straighter.

"Good," Wren smiled adorably. Aria could see how Spencer would get involved with him. "I'm glad to hear it. Would you do me a favor? Tell her I say hi and.. I'm sorry for being immature."

Ezra walked over to them before Aria had a chance to answer.

"Wren. Kingston," Wren introduced himself.

"Ezra," Ezra said, shaking his hand.

"Wren is a friend of Spencer's," Aria explained. Wren looked at her expectantly. "I'll pass along the message," Aria agreed.

"Thank you. I appreciate it. Is everything alright by the way?"

"Yep. Just a check-up."

Wren noticed the square CD case in Ezra's hand then looked back up at Aria, putting 2 and 2 together. "Great. It was good running into you. Thanks again." Aria smiled. Turning to Ezra, Wren said, "Good to meet you."

"Yeah, same here," Ezra agreed, and with a friendly nod, Wren walked off.

"Ready to go?" Ezra asked.

She answered, "Mmhm," as they started walking.

"So he's a friend of Spencer's?"

"Ex-boyfriend actually," Aria said, unsure if it was accurate, but probably close enough.

Ezra didn't expect that. "Really?"

"And her sister's ex-fiancé," she added, to really throw him for a loop.

"Wow," he said. "And I thought our relationship was controversial."

She chuckled. "Don't tell her I told you. It's sort of a secret."

"I won't say anything," Ezra promised, sidestepping a wheel chair abandoned in the hallway.

She wasn't worried. "..Are you ready for this dinner later?" Aria asked as they turned a corner.

"I wouldn't use the word 'ready.'" There really was no preparing for a dinner like this.

"Me neither," she agreed. "But like I said, if things aren't going well, we don't have to tell them tonight." Aria hadn't said she had a big announcement to make. Backing out at any time was still an option.

"Whether it's tonight, or tomorrow, or next week, we have to tell them sooner or later and I'm sure their reaction will be the same whenever we do. And it won't be pretty."

She couldn't argue with him there. What would they say? Every time she thought about making the announcement, she'd imagine the look on her parents' faces and get discouraged, putting it out of her mind to worry about later. Should they prepare something ahead of time or let it come naturally, unrehearsed, as was her preferred course of action? She decided she would be the one to talk. That would be best. '_So I wanted_ _to tell you guys something I've been doing lately. ..Nope, it's not another_ _ceramics class, but close! I've been... incubating your grandchild! Isn't that exciting?'_ Nah, it was a little too indirect. '_Y__o, I'm preggers, deal with it.'_ That would be perhaps a little _too_ direct. '_Mom, dad? You know Ezra and I love each other, very much, and we wanted to tell you something that we're both really happy about. I know this will come as a shock, please just try to keep an open mind when I tell you… we're having a baby. Surprise!' _Not bad. She would leave off the '_surprise!'_ bit at the end, she decided wisely. All 3 vision ended with Ella in tears and Ezra spurting blood, the result of the fork Byron stabbed into his jugular. She shook her head to erase the unpleasant image.

"We could just not tell them," he suggested after she hadn't said a word for a full 30 seconds. They'd gone through 2 sets of double doors in the interim, approaching the third and final set of the exit. "Hop a plane to Guam and send a postcard - 'You're gonna be grandparents!' ..Weather the storm from afar."

"We could wait and let Maeby tell them," Aria suggested.

"Now there's an idea!"

* * *

[Aria's wearing the black and purple star print blouse she wore in 2.23 Eye of the Beholder (without that hideous skirt) - Link in profile.

Please, please leave reviews! Especially for the next few chapters. I really want to know what you guys think. I know a handful of you are enjoying it (you know who you are), but I know more people are reading. If you like something, tell me! :)

To ScoutFinch: Really? That's awesome! And thank you! ]


	47. Chapter 47

**Season 3 begins tonight!**  
The timing has worked out very well. This is the perfect chapter to debut today. You'll understand why any minute now... Enjoy!

* * *

They stopped at Lucky Leon's for coffee a few hours before dinner. At least, Ezra did. He ordered Aria a mango-strawberry smoothie while she fixed her makeup in the ladies' room, then got them a table outside since it was such a beautiful day.

"I want to look at her again," Aria said, picking up her silver bag from the arm of the chair and putting it on her lap.

"So do I, but we should wait. Someone might see," Ezra said as sipped his iced coffee.

"Just for a second. No one will see," she contended, digging in search of the sonogram photo. "Where is it? It's not here. Where did it go!" Panicked, she started pulling books out of her bag and stacking them on the table.

"Hello you two," Ella said cheerfully. She was out running errands, on her way to a meeting at the gallery, and spotted them down the street at the café. The shining sun and warm breeze had put her in an excellent mood. "What are you reading?" she asked, picking up the book at the top of the stack. Aria scrambled after it, but it was too late.

"Why do you ha-," Ella began as a small photograph floated down to her feet. She continued her sentence as she bent to retrieve it. "-ve a book of baby na-" Her face went slack when she saw the photo. Aria and Ezra stared at each other, petrified. Ella's legs went numb and she slumped into the nearest empty chair.

"Mom? Mom? This isn't the way we wanted to tell you. Don't freak out, okay?"

Ella's face shot up and her eyes pierced through Ezra's skull. "Did you do this on purpose! Did you plan this!" she yelled accusingly.

Bewildered by the accusation, he stammered back, "Wha-? No, no. Of course not! How could you even think that?" Ella continued to stare him down while Ezra's face displayed nothing but confusion. He expected yelling, accusations of being irresponsible and stupid, but this made no sense to him.

Aria also had no idea where her mother was coming from. She put her bag on the ground and twisted her chair a few inches to be facing Ella as she said, "Mom, look at me, look at me," trying to direct her mother's attention back onto herself. "We didn't want you to find out this way. We were going to tell you at dinner, tonight!"

"I, I, I," Ella shook her head. "How long have you been keeping this from me?"

"I'm 11 weeks. But we didn't find out right away. Not until after we told you about us." This lie they had prepared.

"11 weeks?" Ella repeated, or rather, squeaked, in utter disbelief. And certain things started to make sense. She was suddenly able to put her finger on why Aria's face had seemed a little fuller lately, why her smile seemed a little brighter and her cheeks always seemed a little redder, subconsciously having attributed it to a new skincare routine or makeup technique.

"Ella, we know it's fast, but-"

"Don't. Speak." she commanded with grave ferocity, her finger inches from his face.

"Mom, please don't be upset," Aria pleaded.

"Did you ever listen to anything I've ever said to you?" _Didn't I teach you about safe sex? Haven't we had multiple conversations about it over the years? Aren't you on the fucking pill I got you on when you were 15 fucking years old!_

"Of course! Believe me, we were careful! _More_ than careful, and this happened anyway. It's meant to be."

"Meant to be," Ella muttered under her breath. "Aria…" she breathed. Ella turned her attention back to Ezra. "How could you be so irresponsible? How could you let this happen?"

"We didn't intend for this to happen. It came as a complete surprise," he tried to assure her.

"I thought I was doing the right thing, letting you two be together even though every part of me _knew_ it was wrong. I _trusted_ you!" Ella was literally shaking. "I can't even _look_ at you right now." Through clenched teeth, she muttered soberly, "I need a moment alone with my daughter."

Ezra looked to Aria for guidance. Her eyes told him to give them a minute. His chair made a scraping noise on the pavement as he pushed it back, then stood up and wandered into the café.

"Aria…" her mom said, trying to be calm. "This isn't what I wanted for you."

"I know it isn't. It's not something I ever imagined either. But I want it now."

"Did we not just have a conversation about growing up too fast? You're _17_."

"I want this baby more than anything. As much as you wanted me, I'm sure."

"I was older. I was married," Ella countered.

"Come on, mom," Aria rolled her eyes. "I've done the math. You may have been married when I was born, but-"

"_Not_ the point I was trying to make. Do you have any idea what it takes to raise a baby?"

"No, not yet. But I have Ezra. We're getting a bigger apartment and-"

"If you're about to tell me you're getting mar-"

"No, no," Aria cut her off. "I don't think either one of us is ready for that."

"You're ready for a baby, but not ready for marriage?"

Aria looked at her mom absurdly. "Are you trying to talk me into it, or out of it?"

Ella touched her temples to soothe the headache which had rapidly developed. "Aria, you have your whole life ahead of you. To say at this stage of your life you've found the person you want to be with for the_ rest_ of your _life_…"

"I know you look at me and think I'm young, I'll grow up and look back on this relationship and wonder why I ever got involved in it in the first place." It was true. Ella liked Ezra, but didn't expect Aria to be with him forever. She expected they would break up, sometime before the end of high school, and it would be hard, as it always is getting over your first love, but Aria would move on and meet someone when she was older. "But there's something you have to understand. I have found that person. He's standing right over there." Ezra looked at them dumbly from inside the building, then looked down pretending to be interested in the scone he was holding. "And we are building a life together. I know we're young, _I'm_ young, but this," she pointed back and forth between herself and Ezra," is more real than I have the words to describe to you. And this baby is very much wanted."

"To make this decision at-"

"There is no decision. Look at this." Aria lifted Ella's hands still clutching the sonogram photo. "She is real."

Ella looked again at the photo, and leaned back in defeat. She sighed. Tiredly, Ella said, "You couldn't possibly know it's a girl yet…"

Ezra returned to the table hoping it was safe.

"I do know. I'm sure of it."

"I believe her," Ezra spoke as he took his seat.

"Ugh. Don't think I'm through with you," Ella shot at him. "I need time to process this. And I need to get to the gallery." She was already late for the meeting and couldn't miss it if she wanted to continue having a job there.

"Will you be there later when we tell dad?" Aria asked, hopeful.

Perturbed, Ella answered her question with a question, "Do I have a choice?"

Aria leaned forward and hugged her mother. "Thank you, mom. You'll see soon that this is a good thing. I love you."

"I love you too," Ella said, then released her from the embrace.

Then she stood and glared at Ezra as she walked away, rubbing her forehead.

They sat in silence for a few moments while Aria flattened out the photo Ella had wrinkled. She admired the small white cluster in the center, then looked up at Ezra and said, "Secret's out."

"One down, one to go," he said, dreading the evening.

* * *

[Dun Dun Duuuuuuuunnnnn!

To anonymous: Thank you for your comment! I try not to make the chapters short, but sometimes they just are... I'm not a writer, this is pretty much the only thing I've ever written so I don't know how to lengthen the chapters (though I'm open to pointers). What I've written is basically what I see in my head so... I'll do my best, but it kinda is what it is. Anyway, I update almost every day so hopefully that makes up for the short chapters. Hope you're enjoying it otherwise. :)

To anon: LoL. Thanks for reading. :)

As you can see, I respond to every comment, even the anonymous ones, so take a second and leave one because every comment is appreciated! ]


	48. Chapter 48

**Season 3!** Ahh my brain might explode. So much new information to process and scrutinize. PLL how I've missed thee.

It's funny, there are certain things from the show tonight that are mighty similar to what happens later in my story. I won't say what, but I wonder if it'll happen a lot...

There's a long author's note at the bottom if you're curious about how this story came to be.

* * *

Aria and Ezra arrived at the restaurant first, an all-American steakhouse just outside Rosewood, not terribly far from the college. They sat together in the booth along the back wall opposite two empty chairs and held hands under the table. As desperately as Ezra wanted to order a scotch or four to aid him to the other side of this dinner, he decided being sober was probably smartest, so they stuck to ginger ale. Aria was sipping hers when Byron was shown to his seat by the hostess.

"Hello," he said, clearly not thrilled to be there, and took his seat.

"Hi, dad," Aria said with a smile on her face.

"Hello, Byron. It's good to see you."

Byron didn't respond, possibly because the waiter appeared and asked, "Would you like anything to drink?"

"A glass of sauvignon-blanc," Byron answered. "And the same for my wife. She should be arriving shortly."

The waiter left and Ezra informed him, "We ordered some appetizers."

Byron gave him a dismissive nod and opened the menu.

"So dad, how was your day?" Aria asked, trying to get the conversation started.

"It was fine. And yours?"

"My day was pretty life-altering," she wanted to say, but instead told him, "It was good. I had a chem final, I think I did well."

"That's good." He gave her an insincere smile. _Your girlfriend had a chem final. She's in 11th grade._

"We went out for coffee after. We ran into mom."

"Oh, did you?" Byron asked. "Did she say she would be late?"

"Just that she'd be at the gallery."

The waiter returned and set the appetizers down in the middle of the table and the glasses of white wine beside Ella and Byron's respective plates. "Are you ready to order or do you need more time?" he asked.

"Should we wait for mom?" Aria asked her father.

"No, I'm sure she'll be here soon, I'll order for her." Byron wanted nothing more than for this night to be over.

They took turns telling the waiter what they wanted. Then they sat mostly in silence while they ate the food in front of them, only commenting on how good it tasted. Ezra compared the mini quiche to something they ordered at the restaurant in Philly the night they attended that gallery opening. Aria agreed it was similar, but these were better. They were unable to draw Byron into the conversation.

"So, Byron, will you be teaching any summer courses?" Ezra asked, hoping work was a safe topic.

"Uh, yes, three in fact. What about you, Ezra? What are your plans?" It was the first time he seemed to be present in the conversation.

"I'm teaching an online course. Been preparing for weeks."

"Is that right?" he said. "Anything else?"

"No, that's it for now," Ezra replied.

Byron wiped his mouth with the cloth napkin. "Maybe I should call your mother, see if she's coming."

"I just texted her," Aria said. "She's on her way."

Byron gave a slight nod of acknowledgement.

"It's a beautiful day out today," Ezra said. "She's probably taking her time, enjoying the weather." Then he felt rather stupid for saying anything. _She's probably attempting to delay the inevitable. _Aria had the exact same thought.

"I'm sure Ella has a good reason for being late," Byron said, squinting at him a bit. Ezra wished he hadn't spoken up at all.

The awkward lopsided conversation continued until the waiter brought their main courses. Aria played with a ring on her forefinger during the most uncomfortable moments, a habit she had developed. The large domino tile didn't spin quite as easily as the little gold band, judiciously absent from her finger.

"Byron, is that you?" an older man asked as he approached.

Byron turned his head toward the voice and looked up. "Hello, Lester, how are you?"

"Marvelous, and yourself?" Before he had a chance to answer, the tall man with the friendly smile said, "Oh, hello there Ezra. What a nice surprise to see you both here." Noticing Aria seated next to him, Lester asked, "Is this the young lady you were telling me about?"

"This is my daughter, Aria," Byron spoke.

"Oh your daughter! I had no idea. How lovely to meet you." She held out her hand to shake his.

"Lester is the Dean of the Faculty at Hollis," Ezra explained to Aria. She nodded politely even though she was dying to dig into the charbroiled sirloin cheeseburger sitting enticingly on the plate in front of her.

"I must be running, my wife is waiting outside, but it was splendid running into you all. Congratulations to the happy couple. Babies are a blessing, indeed." As the man disappeared, Byron jabbed his knife into the wooden table, so hard, the whole thing vibrated.

"You told him!" Aria whispered angrily at Ezra. This was _not_ part of the plan.

"I had to tell him why I was turning down the job," he said to her in a low voice.

They ventured a simultaneous glance at Byron, who was seething with rage.

"Dad."

Ella finally arrived.

"Sorry, I'm late," she began, apologetically, then read her husband's aggressive body language. "Byron? What's wrong?"

"_You fucking bastard_," Byron shouted.

Ella put a hand on his shoulder and leaned down to his level to say, "Byron, calm down, we're in public."

"Calm down?" He looked at his wife with incredulity. "Do you know what's going on here?"

"Yes. I do. Please don't-"

"You know!"

"I just found out. Byron-"

Byron stood, shoving the chair backwards, and flung the napkin angrily on the table. He started to lunge at Ezra, who nearly jumped into Aria's lap, but Ella held him back. He was not normally a violent man. Aria watched the scene in horror, cutting off the circulation to Ezra's right hand with both of hers.

"She's 17 years old you sick bastard!" he shouted over Ella's shoulder. "And you have the arrogance to sit across from me at this ta-"

Other patrons started staring.

"Byron, stop it," she pleaded. "You're causing a scene." Her hands were on his chest, keeping him from making another attempt on Ezra's life.

"This is nonsense, Ella! How can you be okay with this?"

"I'm not okay with it." Ella let her hands drop to her sides. "Let's just talk about it. Please sit down," she requested and pulled on his hand.

He yanked it away. "I can't take one more minute of this.. this.. charade. You allowed this go on and now look. Look! He's destroying her life one step at a time. I can't believe I let you talk me into coming here tonight. This is all some sick fucking joke," he muttered angrily, shaking his head and then turning his attention to Aria. "I won't watch you throw your life away for this.. this.." he gestured irately at Ezra, "worthless parasite." Byron shoved the chair into the table and stormed off.

"Mom?" Aria asked worriedly.

"Why would you tell him before I got here? I was going to tell you to wait until I had a chance to talk to him."

"We didn't tell him! The friggin' dean walked up and offered his congratulations. We were blindsided."

"I shouldn't have told him. I'm sorry," Ezra offered to Aria. Ezra would be paying him a visit next chance he got to make sure he didn't mention the news to anyone else.

"I'm gonna go try to catch him and get him to calm down. I want you home within the hour," Ella said firmly and disappeared in search of her husband.

"Don't listen to what he said," Aria told Ezra, twisting to face him.

He didn't turn to look at her. "It's nothing I didn't expect to hear."

"I'm serious. He's just angry. Once he cools off…"

"Aria, we might have to consider he may never stop seeing me that way."

"Then that's his problem, as long as you don't see yourself that way," she said, trying to catch his gaze by twisting herself in front of him.

"It's hard not to think it when someone is screaming it in your face."

"You know better though," she stated as a fact, grabbing his face to make him look at her. She searched his eyes, silently pleading with him to not let Byron's harsh words hurt him.

Her hazel eyes were hypnotic. "I do," he finally conceded. "I know this is right. We'll just have to get used to people thinking it's wrong."

She kissed him to acknowledge the truth of this statement, hungrily letting her tongue circulate inside his mouth. They broke apart a few seconds later against their baser desires. Other restaurant-goers did a poor job pretending not to be interested. Aria, having lost her appetite, buried her face in her hands while Ezra got up to smooth things over with the staff. Why had she ever thought telling him in a public place would be a good idea?

* * *

[I cast Edward Herrmann in the part of Lester (the grandfather on Gilmore Girls) - link to his IMDb page in my profile.

Or you can just picture the dude who offered Ezra the job on the show.

I sent this in a PM yesterday to Stories Are Better Than Real Life, who asked about how I came up with the baby's name, and I'm posting it here because I thought other people might be curious as well:

Thank you so much! Your comment means a lot to me! Like the rest of this story, my head sort of invented it. At first, I had written "I might be pregnant." Then at some point I got it in my head that if she said "I may be pregnant," they could name the baby Maybe (then I changed the spelling.) At that point, it was like a maybe baby, so that's what she thinks of it before they find out for sure, and it sticks. I'd already had this idea in my head, I think before I actually started writing it... What happened was I wrote the first 8 chapters during the break between 2a and 2b, then just left it alone, but my mind kept coming up with more and more scenes and I wanted to write them down so I didn't forget. After 2b ended, I decided to continue the story. That's why chapter 8 is a deleted scene, cuz I could never imagine what to write next with Emily being pregnant, but I saw Aria being pregnant so clearly, like down to really specific details (like how her mother would find out - outside of Lucky Leons, how her dad would find out, obviously with some inspiration from the show, and how her friends would find out - Hanna tricking her into drinking, and her babysitting and the mom figuring it out because she was eating something weird, and the whole karaoke scene was based around Ezra being alone with the girls for the first time and randomly asking which of them was A haha. I'm still bitter that will never happen on the show. As long as I'm talking about this, I'll say the scene of how they tell Ella they're dating is how I imagined it would go on the show before seeing how they really did it, which was totally weird BTW. Why would he do all the talking? And why wouldn't they lie! Also the scene where Ella comes over and finds Aria, Ezra and Mike playing a board game... in case it's not clear, Aria planned that as a way to get her mom to see Ezra in a good light, to see they do normal things and that Mike accepts him. And lastly, the night of the talent show, that scene was in my brain for so long, I'm so glad I found a way to work it in. A lot of the upcoming scenes, including tomorrow's plus many others, were things I saw in my head and elaborated on to fit into the story. The rest were developed while I was writing. Oh, and I'll also say, all the flashback scenes are exactly what I thought was going on on the show all along. I always thought they had sex in his car in 1.02, I couldn't imagine that scene ending any other way. The look on her face when she gets home says it all.) Anyway, I'm sure that's WAYY more than you ever wanted to know LoL. To get back on topic, when I noticed the poem opposite B-26 had Mabel in the title, I was like, well this is meant to be! I have to name the baby Maeby! Assuming it's a girl :-p Thank you again soooo much for reading. Enjoy the show tonight! I know I will. :)

In response to hiding .my .heart's question, the title came after I chose the name, so yes. It came from what Aria says in the last chapter. ]


	49. Chapter 49

When Aria got home, the only noise came from the sound of Mike's computer upstairs and the low drone of the refrigerator as it switched on and off at regular intervals. She put the leftover food, practically the entire meal, in the fridge and went upstairs to her room to wait. She cracked open her copy of _Winesburg, Ohio_, flipping to her favorite chapter, which she practically knew by heart. This moment surely qualified as a time she'd like to leave Rosewood.

Instead of reading though, she thought back to when Ezra had given her that book.

.

Aria raised her hand in class just as the bell rang.

"We'll pick this up tomorrow," Mr. Fitz said. "Aria, if you have a question, you can stay after." He had been hoping she would make an excuse to stay after.

"I do have a question," Aria said, as the other students gathered their things and began to leave. Her friends heard her say it and didn't bother waiting. She closed her notebook and picked up her bag and walked to the front of the classroom.

"I had a question about the quote we were just talking about, about considering things from someone else's point of view." Ezra was slightly disappointed she really did have a question about the book. But why? She's a student, she's allowed to be confused, he told himself.

"Mmhm," he nodded, as if he were talking to any other student.

"I wanted to know if it had anything to do with Scout seeing things from Boo Radley's perspective by the end."

"You finished the book?"

"I couldn't put it down."

"Of course not," he smiled. "I knew you would enjoy it. It's one of my favorite novels." No one seemed to be eavesdropping, but they were within earshot of the students filing out of the room, so Ezra got back on track. "Well, Atticus gives Scout this advice in chapter 3 and it winds up governing her development for the rest of the novel, so, yes, when she succeeds in-"

"I'll stop you there," Aria said, holding up a hand. "I don't really need you to explain it to me." Ezra was both pleased and concerned. He had wanted to talk to her alone, but now that they had the chance, he was afraid of what she might say. "I just wanted to thank you again for the other night." The classroom was now empty and the door hung open about 3 inches. "I really needed to tell someone that, so thank you, for letting me."

Ezra smiled and nodded, as if to say 'no problem.'

"I won't show up there like that again, I promise." Aria had realized later it was inappropriate to ambush him at his home like that. He probably wished he'd never mentioned where he lived. Aria still wasn't sure what they were, and didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable. She was willing to let this thing progress naturally.

"It's okay." His resolve to not get to know her better was weakening. He had been toying with the idea of having her over to his apartment for a real conversation all weekend.

Aria was unsure if he was just being polite. She smiled and turned to leave.

Ezra had forgotten the reason he wanted to see her in the first place. "I got you something," he said, pulling a hardcover book out of his briefcase resting against the desk on the floor. If she hadn't made an excuse to stay, he had been planning to say, "Aria, I brought the book I said you could borrow," and hoped she wouldn't say, "What book?" He figured teachers loaned students books all the time, no one would question it. This way was better though, no one was around to question it. Unless that was worse…

"You got me something?" Aria asked, trying not to sound too thrilled.

"Well, I _have_ something for you," he said, handing over the book. "I didn't _get_ it for you, so much as get it off a shelf in my apartment. I have two copies."

She examined the cover. A painting of a picturesque village and some quaint villagers walking through it was framed in black and surrounded by text.

"Have you read it?" he asked.

"Mm-mm," she said, turning it over to read the back.

"It's another favorite, I thought you might like it." _I thought it might help you through a tough time._

"I'm sure I will," she said, flipping open to the first page.

Ezra lifted his hand to say, "You don't have to start reading it now. You probably have to get to class."

He dropped that hand when her eyes fell upon the inscription.

_When you need to  
__leave Rosewood...  
__Ezra_

"Thank you," she said sincerely. She wanted to hug him to show her appreciation for the gift, but her feet remained firmly planted in front of his desk, and he hadn't moved from his place behind it. Her eyes conveyed her thanks for a long moment, then she said, "See you tomorrow," and left.

.

It felt like such a long time ago.

Meanwhile, Byron had gone straight to the police station. He was told nothing could be done unless he could prove the sex was non-consensual or that Ezra had been with Aria while he was still her teacher. Byron could not prove either of these things because he didn't believe either to be the case. They would consider a restraining order only if the victim herself came in to make the complaint. Byron knew that would never happen and left the station angry.

Aria could hear the shouting begin outside the house, then the front door slam and the shouting continue downstairs. The words 'son-of-a-bitch' were repeated. A lot. She sat on the top step listening to her father try to paint Ezra as a villain and her mother try to defend him the best she could even though her mind had been in the same place hours before. Byron accused Ella of allowing this to happen, of inviting the devil into their lives at the expense of their daughter. From the way they talked, Aria realized what a strain this situation had been putting on their marriage. Byron had never wanted to allow it and held it against Ella for forcing him to give his tacit approval of the relationship. He was furious at her 'what's done is done' attitude.

Mike joined his sister on the stairs.

Above all the turmoil downstairs, Aria said, "In case you haven't heard… I'm pregnant."

Mike put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry I caused all this," she apologized. "I know this year has been rough on you." Mike had been very affected by his parents' separation.

"It's not your fault," he said. "My therapist told me we're not to blame for their problems." Aria wished this was the truth. She was glad her brother wasn't taking this fight as hard as she expected. "Are you happy? To be pregnant?"

"I really am," she said truthfully, though her tone of voice may have implied otherwise.

.

When the house became silent, Aria went back to her room and started packing.

.

Aria: Nuclear Fallout.

Ezra: I'm sorry.

Aria: Don't apologize.

Ezra: :/

Ezra: Is tomorrow still on?

Aria: Absolutely. I need to get out of here.

Ezra: Good luck on your exam.

Aria: Thanks. See you tomorrow. Love you.

Ezra: Love you. Night.

* * *

[So in this story, since I said it takes place after 2.10 Touched By an 'A'-ngel, Mike started seeing a therapist like Ella suggested in 2.11 I Must Confess. He never got violent with his mother. He stopped stealing and the therapist helped him work out his issues.

In case it's not clear, the flashback takes place the Monday after she goes to his apartment for a hug, which is chapter 37 in my story. The next day he invites her over for dinner, as seen on the show in 1.03 To Kill A Mocking Girl. ]


	50. Chapter 50

To maddie: Thanks. :) I'm glad you liked the last chapter and I hope you don't mind another flashback, cuz that's what you're getting. Gotta keep you guys in suspense.

* * *

[Flashback]

"I love you," Aria said to Ezra for the first time. She had loved him since the beginning, but it wasn't until he told her he would give up his career to be with her that she was able to say it aloud. He needed to know it if somehow he didn't know already.

Her fingertips grazed his neck and she pulled him in for a kiss. A second kiss brought his hand to her face and third brought her arms around his neck. He pulled her to him and kissed her deeper, forgetting everything but those three small words. Her fingertips dug into his scalp and she started to back up, inching them slowly towards the bed. Her hands traveled around his neck as she took another small step backwards and began to loosen his tie, then started to work on the buttons of his vest.

He had just told her how right this felt. And it did feel right, but that voice in his head always questioning his judgment told him to stop.

"We should stop before this goes too far," he said, pulling away from her and letting his arms drop to his sides.

"I don't want to stop," she breathed and kissed him again. Her wrists nudged the vest off his shoulders and it slid to the floor.

"Well we have to," Ezra said flatly and unwrapped her arms from behind his neck.

She didn't argue. Any time they were close like this, he would put a stop to it instead of letting passion take over. The irrational part of her thought he didn't want her, but the rational part knew he was just protecting himself. They had come close the night he had asked for her forgiveness, the night they were caught. In the end, Aria was glad nothing happened because she knew he would have regretted it. Since then, she hadn't pushed it, only hoping he might miraculously change his mind during one of their heated make-out sessions. He hadn't.

Tonight was different though. Tonight they were on the verge of losing everything and she saw no reason to stop themselves from going "too far." "Too far" was exactly where she wanted to go. Aria took off her sweater and tossed it on the chair.

Ezra had paced away from her in an effort to collect himself and didn't see when Aria picked up the glass of scotch she had taken away from him when she had first walked in. But he saw her take a sip as he pulled the loosened necktie over his head and saw her wince as it burned going down.

"What are you doing?" he laughed, dropping the tie carelessly on top of her sweater.

"If you're not gonna finish it, I am." She twisted the glass around in her hand, taunting him with it.

He'd never seen this side of her before. Ezra took the glass from her hand. The last thing he needed was a 'contributing to the delinquency of a minor' charge on his impending record, although all things considered, it would be the least of his problems. He downed the remaining scotch in one gulp.

Aria sat down on the couch and called her dad.

"Hi, dad. I just wanted to let you know I'm going to spend the night at Spencer's. … No, I'll just borrow something of Spencer's. … Yeah, her parents are here. They know I'm staying over. … Okay. Night, dad." She hung up. Ezra hadn't been given a chance to protest, but he wouldn't have even if he had been. He wanted to spend the night memorizing her face as he watched her sleep and pretend tomorrow would never come. Resigning, moving, it would all be worth it if it meant he could see her again.

Ezra placed a giant candle on the coffee table. She read the look on his face.

"Okay, _that_ I won't let you do."

"What?" he asked as he lit the candle.

"Look at me, like this might be the last time you see me."

Ezra pressed his lips together and stared off into space. He briefly met her gaze before dropping his eyes again. Then he stood and sat next to her, holding her in his arms. He kissed her head and she held onto him, resting her head on his chest. He would have been content holding her this way forever.

They sat this way for a full minute, in silence, both trying to be in the moment instead of letting their imaginations wander to the next day, which might mark the end of something that hadn't really begun. Then Aria looked up at Ezra and kissed him softly. She nibbled on his bottom lip and played with the hair behind his ear, and since he didn't stop her, she shifted her weight to be sitting on his lap and wrapped both arms around his neck. Her tongue dove into his mouth, trying to incite a stronger response.

She was nearly impossible to resist, gorgeous and doe-eyed, perfection in a compact package. But he had to resist. He _had to. "Aria…" he mumbled._

"Ezra…" she sighed.

"Aria," he said, pulling away. "We can't do this."

"Why not?"

"You know why not."

"All of those reasons why just went out the window. As much as neither of us would like to admit it, this may be the only night we get to spend together, for a while at least. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Let's make the most of this night we do have."

"It's not that simple," he said, dearly wishing that it was.

"I think it is. I love you. There is nothing left to lose."

Ezra studied her beautiful face. The sight and sound of her saying the words _I love you _was his new favorite thing in the world. He replayed the utterance in slow motion in his head. _I love you._ Again, he imagined her lips moving. _I love you. _There wasn't even any sound this time. Could she possibly love him as much as he loved her, he wondered.

Then she said it again, out loud. "I love you…"

He loved her too. So much, it hurt. Not being able to show her how much these past few months was killing him. _Maybe she's right,_ he thought. _It could all change tomorrow. What's stopping us? _

As if reading his thoughts, she spoke softly. "Nothing is stopping us."

Aria kissed him again, and he let her. He let his tongue slip inside her mouth and explore. Her thumb swept back and forth gently across his cheek, and skipped across the stubble of his 5 o'clock shadow.

He didn't wonder if the alcohol was clouding his judgment. He stopped considering the fallout. He only thought about how much he wanted to be with her, the woman he loved who inexplicably loved him back.

Aria crossed her arms behind his neck, continuing the kiss, and Ezra slipped an arm under her legs and stood, carrying her easily to the bed. The move was a clear statement of intent. In all the time she had spent in his apartment, she had never so much as sat on the bed, and now they were there together, horizontal, letting nature take its course, and this time, he wouldn't move away from her, extinguishing the flame of their desires, like he had done so many times before.

They took their time removing each other's layers; there was no need to rush. It felt like time had stopped. Kneeling on the bed, she undid all the buttons of his shirt and her hands roamed his broad chest, then pushed the unwanted garment off and down his shoulders, as she laved him with kisses, showing him the affection he deserved and increasing his arousal. The knot in his stomach disappeared the second her lips skimmed his skin.

Ezra unbuttoned and removed her blouse, and she got goosebumps when he finally let himself run a hand down her bare back. He kissed her collarbone and neck and up under her jaw for a long while, and they explored each others' bodies with their fingers in ways they had never done, before they moved on to unclothing their lower halves. Then they lay there together, on their sides facing each other, stripped down to their underwear. He had never seen this much of her before. She never stopped looking at him like this was right.

Aria sat up and reached a trembling hand behind her back, undoing the clasp of her bra. She let it slide off and fall to the floor. Then she slid off her panties while he watched.

She lay back and he kissed her again, deeply. Ezra stared deep into her eyes, looking for any sign of hesitation or doubt, and found none. Another kiss. Her body rose up to meet his, wanting and needing him more than she ever had before, his hardness pressing again her inner thigh until he tore himself away. He moved to the edge of the bed, pulling off his boxers, then reaching into the bedside table and retrieving a condom. Aria followed him there, and kissed his neck, embracing him lovingly from behind as he tore open the package and allowed her to roll it on. His breath hitched and his body quivered at her touch.

There was no going back. They were so far beyond the point of no return. He wanted her so much. She pulled him down onto her, opening her legs to him and kissing his lips with great affection. Her body ached for him, longing for this connection.

Her right arm rested loosely around his neck, while he raised her left arm above her head and intertwined their fingers. He took his time, wanting to make this special in a way he couldn't the first time. They looked into each others' eyes as he entered her slowly, gradually, taking care not to lay the full weight of his body on hers. She took a deep breath, remembering what it felt like the first time he was inside her.

Ezra thrust into her gently with an unhurried rhythm. He placed soft kisses on her lips and her cheek and her nose and both eyelids, memorizing the taste and contour of the face he adored, then nuzzled the place behind her ear, eliciting soft mewls from Aria.

She pulled his face back to hers and their lips met once again. He kissed her with a newfound intensity as his hand found her hip, guiding her body beneath him. She matched his rhythm and her fingers skimmed the perspiration on his back, eventually settling in his hair, then gripping it tight as her very soul caught fire. All she could think, when she was able to think at all, was this was the way they were meant to be. Linked. Literally and figuratively.

"I love you," she whispered and, lost in the words that meant everything, he began exerting more force, accelerating the pace at which he advanced his body into hers. He hitched her leg up and she curled it around him, her intake of breath becoming sharper. Each time her hips rose off the bed, she moaned desperately into his open mouth, a catalyst propelling them deeper into delirium, consumed by the fire blazing between them. She lifted her lips to his neck, but lost her train of thought when he started nibbling behind her ear again.

The pace quickened. Sensations were building inside her and she arched her back, expelling a long visceral moan, getting lost in the hot waves of pure pleasure. He felt her walls tighten around him as she cried out, squeezing his hand and digging her nails into his knuckles. Right there with her, his body went rigid and shuddered, and panting, he collapsed onto her chest in a haze of love and devotion and satisfaction. Ezra listened to her heartbeat, actually feeling it beat against his ear. Aria enjoyed the lingering feeling in the pit of her stomach while she held his head close to her chest and struggled to catch her breath.

Whatever happened tomorrow, they would always have this night.

* * *

[To refresh your memory - (add youtube to these links)

(skip to 2:30) watch?v=8yuiZqw79iQ

It makes me happy that this wound up being chapter 50.

The theme song of this chapter is Save Tonight by Eagle Eye Cherry - watch?v=TnEdUVBjZfo]

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Press that button!

l

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	51. Chapter 51

The next morning, Aria dragged a full duffle bag down the carpeted stairs. It was hot pink with zebra print trim, and held quite a bit.

Ella heard the sound and spotted her descending as she rounded the corner. Panicked by the sight, she asked, "What are you doing?"

Aria reached the bottom step and replied, "Going to Spencer's beach house for the weekend. Did you forget?"

"Yes, I did," Ella said tiredly. "It's not the best time-"

"You okayed this weeks ago!"

"I remember, but after everything, we really need to talk." Her eyes couldn't help focusing on Aria's mid-section, though there was nothing there yet to see.

"We can talk when I get back. Please, I want to spend this weekend with the girls. We've been looking forward to it."

Ella seemed to be considering it.

"We worked hard this year, and we made it through." _In one piece._ "We deserve a break," Aria added.

"Okay.." Ella gave in. "Maybe it's a good idea."

"Do you think dad would rather not look at me?" she asked, knowing the answer regardless of what her mother said.

"No, Aria! That's not it! He's just angry. And frankly, so am I. But I'm also late for school." Ella had to be there early to help set up and proctor an exam. She, understandably, didn't sleep well last night. "We'll pick this up later," she said and started walking toward the door.

"We're leaving straight from school," Aria informed her, finally leaving her place on the bottom step. The bag, which had been behind her legs the whole time, slid down next to her feet.

Ella turned around and asked, "When will you be back?"

"Sunday."

"Then we'll pick this up Sunday. I love you. Be careful. Call _every day _to check in." Ella gave Aria a quick kiss on the forehead and said, "Have Mike bring that to the car for you."

"It's not that heavy." It was pretty heavy. There was a reason she had dragged it down the stairs instead of carrying it.

"Do it anyway," she said and rushed out the door.

.

"School is out!" Hanna exclaimed as she sped down the steps of Rosewood High and did a little twirl. Caleb, not quite as giddy as his girlfriend, but just as happy to be free, grasped her swinging hand and walked with her. Aria, Spencer, Emily and Paige were close behind. The sun was high in the sky and they were all outfitted in summer attire, Aria in an Aztec-print loose-fitting tank, black shorts and wedges.

Paige and Emily had remained friends and become closer after Paige came out to her parents. It took Emily a little while to realize the feelings were still there and decide they should give it another shot. This development was pretty new. The girls were very surprised when they found out Paige was gay, considering everything that went on months ago, but they accepted her just like they did Emily when she came out, or 'fell out' of the proverbial closet 'on her face,' as Emily once put it.

"It's been a looong year," Emily said.

"Sure has," Spencer agreed.

When they turned the corner, they saw Toby leaning against Spencer's SUV in the parking lot. She ran ahead of the group and gave him a long kiss.

"D'you walk here?" she asked as the others approached. "We could've picked you up."

"I wanted to surprise you," he said, taking her hand. "And my truck is in the shop."

"How come?"

"The brakes felt weird last time I drove it so I had them pick it up this morning. They said it's been leaking brake fluid. I must have sliced the brake line when I drove it onto the work site yesterday," he explained.

"You're lucky nothing happened while you were on the highway.."

"Yeah."

"Hey, Toby," Emily said when she got near..

"Hey," he smiled, glancing down at Emily's hand intertwined with Paige's.

"This is Paige," Emily introduced. Toby hadn't yet met Paige, but he knew all about her and knew she would be joining them this weekend as Emily's girlfriend.

"Hey, how's it going?" he asked while shaking her hand.

"Good! I'm excited for this weekend. Emily's told me so much about you. I'm glad to finally meet you. Officially." Paige had seen Toby around school when he still attended, but they had never met, Toby being a grade ahead and somewhat of a loner with a bad reputation.

"Likewise."

Emily smiled at each of them, pleased.

During this exchange, Caleb moved Aria's duffel bag from the trunk of Hanna's car to the back of Spencer's. Hanna's mom had gotten her a (pre-owned) sporty black sedan for her birthday in March. Caleb knew cars pretty well and helped them find a good deal on it since they still belonged to a one-paycheck household. Hanna had picked up Aria for school this morning and she had been the one to put Aria's bag in the car, which was no problem because she'd lifted her own suitcase into the trunk first and it weighed twice as much.

"Okay! Everybody ready to go?" Spencer asked, excitedly.

"Mmmhmm," they all nodded.

"Great! We'll swing by Ezra's, then be on our way."

"Ezra?" Paige asked.

"Aria's boyfriend," Emily explained.

"You didn't mention…?" Aria questioned Emily.

"It never came up…" Emily admitted.

"What?" Paige asked.

"Well, Ezra…" Aria began. "He used to teach here. Do you remember Mr. Fitz?"

"Oh," Paige said, shocked.

"We started dating after he left. I'd really appreciate it if you didn't mention it to anybody. We don't really want it to be public knowledge just yet."

"Sure, of course. I won't say anything," Paige said sincerely, making a 'my lips are sealed' gesture.

Tapping her foot impatiently, with a fist on her hip, Hanna said, "We could have filled her in on the way. Let's get going!" Hanna couldn't wait to lay out on the beach. The closest thing Rosewood had to a beach was a lake about 20 minutes away. Pile all the lounge chairs and beach umbrellas around it you want, there was no comparing it with the real deal.

Hanna and Emily and their respective plus-ones piled into Hanna's car while Spencer, Toby, and Aria hopped into Spencer's and they all drove off in search of some well-needed summertime fun.

* * *

[So did anyone think she was running away? I didn't really mean for that, but I knew "and started packing" would be a bit of a cliffhanger. Hehe.

Aria is wearing the outfit she wore in 3.01 It Happened 'That Night' except the tank top doesn't tie at the waist like that. Link to pic in my profile.

To Notinyourlifetimehoney - Thank you for reading and leaving comments!

To maddie - Thank you so much! Good luck with your story! I'm sure it'll be great. :)

Get ready, you guys. I think I lied when I said the karaoke scene was my favorite. This whole beach weekend might be my fave part. I really hope you enjoy it. :) ]


	52. Chapter 52

I added something to chapter 21 (the Jackie chapter). Ever since I'd published that chapter, it's been nagging at me that it was unfinished. I hadn't written what happened next and I didn't want to hold up the schedule to do it, so I went ahead with it as it was, but now it has everything it was supposed to. So, if you liked how it ended on a sweet note, you don't have to bother rereading it, but if you'd prefer it end on a _dirtier_ note, then go right ahead. I wound up shifting things a bit by combining the two Spencer&Fitz chapters since they were so short, made the Jackie chapter number 20, and the dirty bit 21. Enjoy.

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"I'll go get him," Aria said when they pulled up outside Ezra's apartment building and hopped out.

She didn't get very far, running up the steps just as he exited the building carrying a blue duffel. It was significantly lighter than Aria's. She ran into his arms, almost knocking him off balance, and gave him a 'so happy to see you' kiss while her friends looked on from the cars. Ever since they parted ways last night, all she wanted to do was see his face.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" she asked as they descended the steps together. Ezra waved at Hanna and Caleb in the black car idling behind Spencer's. Hanna grinned and wiggled her fingers back at him.

"Or what, be miles away from you for 3 whole days?" he said like the idea was completely absurd. "I like your friends. We had fun at that bar, right?" Spencer popped the hatch from inside and it slowly opened.

"Yep." She didn't want to talk him out of it by any means, but was worried there might be a weird dynamic. All along, he had been a separate part of her life. Now, she wanted to include him in the rest of it, and hoped would be comfortable there.

Ezra tossed his bag in, and slammed the door shut, then they got into the backseat from opposite sides. Aria sat in the middle, to Ezra's left.

"Hello _Ezra_," Spencer said, emphasizing his first name. She wondered if she'd ever get used to calling him that to his face.

"Hi Spencer."

She started pulling away from the curb. Hanna's car followed suit.

"Ezra, this is Toby, Toby, this is Ezra," Aria introduced.

"Hey, nice to meet you," Toby said.

"Same here." They shook hands between the seats. Ezra knew Spencer's boyfriend would be joining them, but didn't know _who_ Spencer's boyfriend was.

"Buckle up, kids! Safety first," Spencer said facetiously.

"Oh, before I forget!" Ezra reached over the backseat into the zippered compartment of his bag, pulling out a smallish plastic package. "I got these for you."

"Omigod you remembered!" Aria squealed. "I can't believe it! I have been craving these sooo bad!" She couldn't decide between hugging him or tearing open the package so she tried to do both at once. Ezra grinned at how happy he'd just made her.

"What is it?" Spencer asked.

"It's this candy I used to eat in Iceland," Aria explained, already chewing a piece. "It's like licorice and coconut. It sounds gross, but it's soo good. Do you want to try some?"

"Sure.." she said uncertainly. Aria held the bag forward and Toby reached in for two pieces so Spencer didn't have to turn around.

"Thank you, love." She gave him a kiss and he could taste the licorice on her lips. "You're so sweet. How did you even find these?"

"I had to order them online," he explained. "There's more where that came from. There's a whole box sitting in the apartment."

"Good thinking. I can tell the baby's gonna want more." She rested her head on his shoulder, and murmured, "You're so good to us."

Toby turned to Spencer slightly, who briefly met his gaze then returned her eyes to the road. "Baby?" he asked quietly.

"She didn't tell you?" Aria asked.

"I wasn't sure if you were telling people yet," said Spencer.

"Toby's not people," Aria said as if it were plainly obvious. Even though Aria didn't know Toby well, she knew she could trust him. He was part of the inner circle.

"Uh thanks," he laughed. "Congratulations."

"Thank you." It was nice to hear an unqualified congratulations from someone.

"Toby and I will totally babysit if you ever need us to," Spencer offered, simply volunteering him for the job without even asking.

"Thanks, Spence." Turning to Ezra, "We're so lucky. We've got half a dozen built-in babysitters just waiting for a crack at this peanut. And if they're all busy, there's always Mike." She was only half-joking. Aria thought Mike would make a good uncle.

Ezra looked at her dubiously. "You would trust Mike with our child?"

_Our child._ It was the first time either one of them had ever referred to the baby like that. "I love hearing you say that," she said, lowering her voice. The hand which had been resting on her bare thigh all this time gave it a squeeze.

"Our child will be so loved," he said softly, brushing the hair away from her face with his other hand. Their foreheads were touching and her eyes bore into his.

Spencer turned up the stereo to give them some privacy, but they took it as a cue to lighten the mood. With a measured breath, they broke apart. He removed his hand from her thigh and rested that arm around her shoulder.

"This is a great song. Is this the radio?" Ezra asked whoever.

"No, it's my iPod," Toby answered.

"I was gonna say. I don't think they get much radio play."

"Yeah, it's a shame," he agreed.

"Do you have _Stars_?" Ezra asked. "It's my favorite track off the album."

"Mmhm. I can play it next." Toby picked up his phone, plugged into the jack between the seats with a long white wire, and queued up the song Ezra requested.

"Who is this?" Aria asked, playing with his fingers.

"The xx," Ezra replied. "Didn't I send you some of their songs?"

"Oh right. I haven't had a chance to listen yet."

Up front, Spencer and Toby started talking about finals. Spencer was certain she'd aced them all, except possibly Russian History, which she never quite caught up in this year. Toby was glad he was through with high school.

"I like it," Aria said during the next song. Aria and Ezra were fans of good music in general, regardless of genre, or language even. They both had a rather eclectic taste which became only more eclectic after they met.

"So tell me what happened last night. What kind of nuclear fallout?" Ezra asked her.

"There was a lot of yelling," she told him.

"At you? I should have been there to deflect-"

"No. No, mostly my dad yelling at my mom. It was awful."

"I'm sorry. I wish we had handled it differently, but I'm honestly not sure what would have been better."

"Me neither," Aria agreed.

"Sorry to interrupt, but are you guys saying you told your parents about the baby? Last night?" Spencer asked.

"Sort of. We didn't get to _tell_ them anything. First, my mom finds the ultrasound picture and nearly passes out on the street. Then, at dinner with my dad, Ezra's boss shows up and spills the beans for us."

"Wow. How did they react?"

"My mom is dealing. My dad is.. not. He seemed ready to choke Ezra to death last night. He went the cops-"

"Wait, what?" Ezra asked, afraid his worst nightmare might be coming true.

"While they were yelling, I figured out my dad went straight to the cops after dinner and they said there was nothing they could do."

"Maybe lead with this information next time. Warn me I might be hauled off to prison." He attempted to keep his tone light, and failed.

"You won't. We haven't done anything wrong. At least," lowering her voice a bit, "no one knows we have."

"Are you okay?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah, it'll blow over," Aria said, without much conviction.

"I can't believe they even let you come this weekend."

"There was no way I was missing this. My mom tried to stop me this morning, then agreed it might be a good idea. Probably so she has a chance to talk my dad out of hating me."

"Hating you?" Ezra said. "Aria, no. I'm the one he hates. He could never hate you."

"Don't be so sure. The way he looked at me at the restaurant, it was like I was dead to him."

"That's not true."

"Yeah, maybe," she said without enthusiasm. Then Aria snickered and Ezra smiled.

"What's so funny?" Spencer asked.

"Nothing. I'm really glad for this trip, Spence. I need a break."

* * *

[Links to Stars by The xx and the other song playing, Crystalized by The xx are in my profile. ]


	53. Chapter 53

"This place is huge!" Hanna remarked upon entering the beach house. They all piled in, dropping their bags on the tile floor, and looked around. Opposite the massive curved staircase immediately to their right was the living room with a huge fireplace in the corner and a bay window which overlooked the wide driveway.

"Yep," Spencer said. "There's plenty of space for all of us. You guys can all head upstairs and pick a room. Except the blue room on the third floor, that's mine." She won it fair and square in a game of jacks with Melissa about 7 years ago.

"Race you," Hanna challenged Emily and charged up the stairs, Emily in tow, but not for long. She passed Hanna almost right away. Caleb and Paige followed close behind. Their footsteps echoed around the large room.

Hanna picked the room with the pink throw pillows and Emily chose the one with two beds. Both were on the second floor and offered incredible views of the ocean.

"Do you want me to bring your bags upstairs?" Toby asked Spencer.

"Sure, thanks," she said and wandered off into the kitchen to the left.

Ezra craned his neck to get a good view of the wooden beams and light fixture on the vaulted ceiling three stories above them. "Wow, this place is nice. I didn't realize 'beach house' was code for 'mansion.'" It wasn't _actually_ a mansion, but after living in tiny dorm rooms and a studio apartment, anything with more than 4 walls felt like a mansion to Ezra.

"I don't think Spencer's family owns anything _but_ mansions," Aria said, poking her head around a corner. "Let's see what's down here."

They headed down a darkish hallway behind the staircase. When they reached the end, Aria flung open a set of double doors to reveal the master suite. A California King pillow-top mattress covered in a plush gold comforter sat in the centre of the room. Behind it, a wall full of glass with a sliding door which opened up onto a private patio. The room was warm and inviting, with a minimalistic flair to it - not too many knick knacks lying around.

Hanna came running up behind them. "Damn, this is way bette-"

Aria cut her off. "Dibs."

.

Everyone gathered in the foyer and Spencer explained the day's agenda. "There's no food in the house, so I'm gonna do a shopping in town. Any special requests - write them down on this pad." Spencer placed a pen and pad on the side table beneath the staircase. "I'll also pick up lunch and later we can go swimming." Hanna got to scribbling. Aria yawned.

"I'll go with you," Ezra offered. "Why don't you take a nap?" he directed at Aria.

"You don't.. have to tell me twice," Aria yawned again.

Ezra brought their bags into the bedroom. "I'll put my stuff in this one," Aria said, pointing to the dark wood dresser on the wall to the left. Ezra set her bag down on top then placed his on the taller bureau they had passed by when they walked in.

While unpacking, Ezra asked, "Toby is Jenna's brother right?"

"Uh huh," she said, unzipping her bag.

"How did he and Spencer wind up together?" He was understandably curious.

_They fell in love investigating whether Jenna was A and/or framing them both for murder. More or less. _"It's a loooong story."

"Got it. How long have they been together?"

Aria pulled open the top drawer and placed a stack of folded clothes in the empty space. "Uhh 6ish months I think, I forget. They just got back together recently."

"Oh, cuz I was gonna ask… that guy we ran into at the hospital." If they had dated prior to 6 months ago... then it'd be the exact same thing he did with Aria. He had no right to be scandalized by the idea.

She placed another, messier, stack beside the first and said, "Another long story." _She started dating him after A made her break up with Toby. Actually, not that long of a story._

"I see." Ezra finished unpacking and leaned against the piece of furniture that probably cost more than all of his furniture at home combined. "Well, Toby seems like a nice guy. Good taste in music at least. I never met him at school, but always got a weird sort of vibe from him."

Aria placed two folded beach towels in the next drawer and said, "Trust me, we all used to get that vibe from him. Spencer more than anyone. It was pretty crazy to watch him go from the person she trusted least in the world, to the person she trusted most." She took the bag from the wooden surface and started walking around the bed toward the bathroom on the opposite wall.

"Is it weird being friends with him, being Jenna's brother, and him being accused of, you know, killing your other friend?" Ezra broached this subject gently, knowing Aria didn't like to talk about it.

"Not so weird," Aria shrugged as she passed him. Long gone were the days of them thinking Toby was the enemy. She put the bag on the counter inside the doorway, deciding to unpack the rest later, and turned to face Ezra. She rested against the wall there and said, "He's Jenna's step-brother, by the way. They… are not on good terms."

"No?"

"No. Jenna's… not really a good person. She… It's not really my place to say, but she used to hurt Toby…" Aria screwed up her face in a brief moment of indecision, then said, "She used to blackmail him into sleeping with her." Aria hadn't mentioned this when she told Ezra about the Jenna thing. She knew, but hadn't yet seen the video proof, which was probably irreversibly burned into Spencer and Emily's collective memory. Aria had told him that Alison had something on Toby and that's why he took the blame for their prank gone wrong.

"Oh. Jeez." _That is so fucked up._ "To tell the truth, I always got weird vibes from her too." Working with her on the play was an odd experience to say the least. He was intrigued by her story, and her writing, and even her music, but never entirely comfortable in her presence.

"Yeah. No kidding."

"Your lives are so complicated. My high school years… not quite so…" Ezra didn't know how to finish that sentence without possibly offending her. She didn't exactly ask for her best friend to get killed before her 16th birthday or invite any of the other crap she'd had to deal with in her life.

_You don't know the half of it_, she thought and yawned.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to pry," he said, stepping forward.

Aria did the same, looking at him when she said, "No, I want to tell you things. It's just that certain things are not my secrets to share."

He gave her a half-smile of understanding.

Aria sat on the edge of the enormous bed, looking tiny in comparison, and kicked off her shoes. Ezra drew the shades, dramatically darkening the space, then sat next to her.

"You good?"

"Mmmhmm," she answered. He pulled her to his chest, and kissed her head, then silently left the room. Aria curled up hugging a pillow and fell fast asleep.

* * *

[I feel like I could draw up blueprints of this house the way I see it so clearly in my head.

Thanks again to my readers and commenters. It makes me seriously happy to read new comments. :) ]


	54. Chapter 54

New ep tonight! Who's excited? I know I am!

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(Part 1 of 3)

Spencer, Toby, and Ezra went into town while Aria napped and the others explored the house and the grounds.

"Is Aria asleep?" Spencer asked as they got into the car.

"If she's not now, she will be in about 30 seconds. I could tell she was really tired," Ezra answered, getting into the backseat. He no longer felt uneasy being alone with his former students and hoped they were beginning to feel the same way. He didn't have a problem being around Toby or Caleb since he hadn't known them before, and the girls he felt he already knew on some level, from class and through Aria's stories. He liked that he didn't have to constantly watch what he said around them since they were all fully aware of his past with Aria and didn't seem to care one bit.

"Yeah. Now I know why she kept falling asleep at my house the past few months," Spencer said, buckling her seatbelt.

"She did?"

"Yeah, she'd just nod off while we were doing our homework or talking."

"What'd you think was going on?" he asked, curious. He was still impressed how Aria managed to keep the secret for so long.

She twisted the key in the ignition. "I just thought she wasn't getting enough sleep or something," she said and tried not to smile, even though he couldn't see her face. Spencer and the others actually joked about Fitz keeping her up nights after she had dozed off on them once.

Ezra bobbed his head a little in acknowledgement as they pulled away. At the same time, Toby plugged his iPod into the stereo and selected a playlist of a band he had started listening recently. The unique sound and meditative quality of the music caught Ezra's attention right away. Spencer and Toby had made a deal a while back that the passenger was in charge of music so the driver wasn't distracted, though the driver always retained veto power.

"Are you excited about the baby?" Spencer asked. Aria had convinced Spencer that her life wasn't over just because she'd gotten pregnant. Spencer was a realist and knew the road ahead wouldn't be easy, but she was able to be happy for Aria, and glad she had Ezra in her life. She already had plans to go for runs, or walks, with Aria, and get her to take up yoga and start drinking fruit smoothies full of hemp protein and chia seeds which contain tons of important nutrients good for growth and brain development. Her best friend was going to have the healthiest, and smartest, baby if she had anything to do with it.

"Definitely. Definitely excited. Amongst other things. Like paranoia her father might show up here and kill me in my sleep."

Spencer forced a laugh. She could tell he was trying to make a joke, but guessed he was probably terrified what Byron would do next since his pleas to the police fell on deaf ears.

Ezra picked up the bag of candy sitting on the seat next to him. He opened it up and popped a piece in his mouth. "Ugh!" he said, spitting it into his hand. "This is revolting. I don't know how she eats this." It didn't taste so bad earlier on her lips.

Spencer laughed. "I know! I wanted to spit my piece out the window, but thought it'd be rude."

"You actually ate it? Trust me, I would _not_ have been offended." Ezra patted the back of the seat with his free hand looking for a stash of napkins.

"Do you want a tissue?" she asked.

"If you've got one.."

"Yeah." She gestured to the glovebox.

Toby pulled out a package of tissues and handed one back to Ezra. Ezra said, "Thanks," as Toby said, "I thought it was pretty good…"

"You liked it?" Spencer asked incredulously. "You would…"

"It's all yours, man," Ezra said, passing him the bag by smacking it into his chest from behind. "And there's plenty more where that came from. I had to order a huge box in order for them to ship to the states. Now I can see it's _definitely_ too much. Feel free to stop by any time and take some off my hands."

"Sure…" Toby agreed, happily biting another into another piece of the controversial candy.

After a brief silence, Spencer told Ezra, "Thanks for coming to the store with us. It'll go faster with three people."

"No problem. You opened up your home to us, it's the least I can do." Ezra was mildly apprehensive when Aria had first invited him until Spencer convinced him her parents would never find out, and probably not care if they did. He decided, as usual, to just go with it.

"I wouldn't really call it home. I'm trying to think of the last time I was actually here. We haven't come here as a family in a while... Melissa stayed here a few times with Ia-, with her boyfriend, with her husband when they were still dating." It felt strange for Spencer to be explaining this to someone. She wondered how much Aria had told him about Ian. Had they know each other while working at the high school? "Most of the year it sits empty."

"How is your sister doing?" Ezra asked sensitively. Ezra knew Spencer's sister's husband killed their best friend and tried to kill Spencer before committing suicide earlier this year. He remembered Ian and Melissa from school and, of course, the funeral, and knew she was pregnant. Aria did talk to him about it once, shortly after they had gotten back together for the last time. No one believed their story about Ian and the church until his body was discovered just over a week later. Ezra wished he hadn't let her go that night, and more than that, he wished she'd have let him be there for her in the aftermath.

"She's doing okay. I haven't seen her much since..." Toby touched Spencer's hand which was resting next to the gear shift. "She's in Philly, back in school for now."

"That's good," Ezra said quietly. Ezra couldn't imagine what Melissa was going through or how she was able to put her life back together. He didn't know Ian, but had seen him around school, and actually went out for drinks with him and a handful of other teachers and faculty members once. Never in a million years would he have guessed the man capable of murder.

* * *

[Lame ending, I know, but this scene is pretty long and I had to break it somewhere. Second half is better.

To maddie - Well... there are going to be sex scenes. He's just not gonna bend her over a desk cuz that would be bad. Was it not clear what he was about to do to her? I did actually write what comes next... but I'm not entirely happy with it so I'm not sure I'll include it. We'll see.  
Good idea saving them up to read all at once. Thanks again for reading and leaving comments!

And in response to TotalCowGirl's question, all the couples are sharing a room. Aria called dibs on the master suite, Hanna/Caleb and Emily/Paige are upstairs, and Spencer/Toby are on the 3rd floor. ]


	55. Chapter 55

How funny was last night's episode? And intense too. So many awesome moments. I love it.

* * *

(Part 2 of 3)

After a silence which grew more apparent by the second, Ezra said, "So, Toby, what other music are you into?" Toby hadn't said much yet. Ezra would describe him as the strong silent type, unlike himself who was likely to fill awkward silences with words. A plethora of unnecessary words. Toby seemed to truly care about Spencer and they didn't seem as odd a match as he had initially expected.

"Um, a lot of different things.. My favorite band is called Circa Survive, have you heard of them?"

Ezra shook his head then realized Toby couldn't see him. "Mm-mm, I don't think so."

"They're local, from Philadelphia."

"Are you still going to that concert with Emily? It's coming up right?" Spencer asked.

"I'm not sure..." he said.

"It's all you guys could talk about a few months ago. Didn't you get tickets?" she questioned.

"Yeah, I did. I sort of forgot about them," he lied. Toby wasn't sure Emily still wanted to go, but decided to ask her later since things had been better between them lately.

Spencer wondered at this until Ezra said, "You don't like them?" asking Spencer her opinion.

"I don't _not _like them," she said. "But Toby and Emily are obsessed."

Toby nodded in agreement. "I'm also into this band called Two Tongues. And I just discovered this band called School of Seven Bells. That's what this is," he said, referring to the music playing in the car.

Ezra had been wondering, so he was glad Toby mentioned the name. He planned to check out some more of their music later if he got the chance.

"What about you?" Toby asked Ezra. "Besides Miley Cyrus."

"I never should have admitted that," Ezra said ruefully. "I regretted it before the words left my mouth." They all laughed. On the drive down earlier, they went around and told what was the most surprising or random song on their iPod. _You find one Miley Cyrus song catchy enough to download and never hear the end of it…_

"For real though. Top 3 bands. Or musicians."

"Mmm, top 3 right now are... Greg Laswell, Arcade Fire, and.. Mumford & Sons. Oh and Aria got me really into Sigur Rós."

"Me too," Spencer said. "I listen to them sometimes while I'm studying. And his solo stuff."

"I could see that. It's good for background music." _For studying, for cooking, for writing, for _other things_... _he thought. "What else do you listen to?"

"Whatever I'm in the mood for," she said. "This week I've been listening to Florence & the Machine, some Maroon 5. I like The Killers a lot."

Ezra nodded approvingly and this time she could see him in the rear-view mirror.

"You know..." she said, "you kind of look like the lead singer..."

"Of which? Florence & the Machine?"

"No!" she laughed, as did Toby. "The Killers."

"I don't know what he looks like, sorry," Ezra shrugged.

Toby was already typing on his smart phone, pulling up a photo. "Here," he said, handing Ezra the phone.

"Uhhh... I'm not seeing it," he said, looking at the phone, then handing it back.

"I can _totally_ see it," Toby joked. "You just need a porn star 'stache and to trim your hair a little."

They all cracked up at this. Spencer's face turned red. "Is that it, Spencer?" Ezra said. "I lack the proper facial hair?"

"No! I didn't mean anything b-" She decided to stop talking while they continued to laugh at her.

"I've never tried growing a mustache. Maybe I should start," Ezra joked, "right now." His thumb brushed across his upper lip. It wouldn't take much effort on his part, but he preferred the clean-shaven look.

"I wouldn't if I were you," she said, trying to be serious. "Aria won't like it."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I told her that once, at the beginning of the year, that you looked like him and the same mustache conversation ensued. She said she wouldn't stand for you growing a mustache, I should have guessed then you guys were dating." Between that and the odd tension she would occasionally pick up on in the classroom, she thought she really should have figured it out on her own. But she gave herself a pass because 'a few peculiar comments' plus 'occasional weirdness' does not logically equal 'forbidden affair.'

"How _did_ you guess?" Ezra asked. "Or did you? How long have you actually known about us?" He knew Hanna must have known from the beginning, though he wasn't sure if Aria told her, or she guessed, or what. Spencer must have known since around the time he started working at Hollis.

"She never told you?"

"Nope." After the Spencer-sliding-into-his-car-unannounced-and-uninvited incident, Ezra never asked Aria if her other friends knew about them, because he didn't much care either way as long as they kept it quiet.

Spencer was relieved Aria hadn't filled him in on how hot she had found their affair. Aria never gave her details though, so Spencer had no idea how hot their affair really was. If Spencer knew what happened after that "1-900" call... she'd have never been able to look Fitz in the eye, or ever been able to take him seriously in class again. "Maybe I shouldn't then..."

"Why not? What difference does it make now?"

"I guess you're right," she said. "We've known since November. Hanna saw you guys making out in the woods."

"In the woods?" he asked, trying to remember. "Ohh." _In my car, in the woods._

"That was basically an all-around terrible idea, just so you know. There were dozens of kids from school less than 5 minutes away."

"It wasn't _my_ idea! I had no idea there was a party going on there. She told me where to meet her, so I did, without even thinking about it. It wasn't 'til the next day..." he trailed off. "Hanna saw us?" _But she already knew. I don't get it._

"Uh huh. And she wasn't the only one." _Noel Kahn._

_Noel effing Kahn. _"You know about that?"

"Uh huh," she replied.

Toby was curious what they were talking about, but his curiosity took a backseat to remembering what else happened that night. He was arrested. What he had thought had been a betrayal by his only friend turned out to be the work of his psycho step-sister.

"Hm." Reminded of Noel's scheme, which nearly cost him everything, he asked, joking, "You knew since back then? Were you ever tempted to... you know, use this information…"

"Oh, _I_ was tempted," she replied. "When you gave me a B on that Hemingway paper... Tried to ruin my GPA."

"You cannot take that personally! I remember that paper. It wasn't up to your usual standards."

"_Well excuuuse me_. I had a lot going on…"

"You gave her a B and lived to tell the tale?" Toby asked at the rear-view mirror.

"He did. And if he hadn't agreed to that extra credit, who knows what I would have done."

Toby thought of an inappropriate joke, but didn't say it. _What _kind_ of extra credit?_

Ezra chuckled, then realized what a bizarre conversation this had turned into.

"You know I'm just kidding, right?" Spencer said, realizing how it sounded. "I never would have-"

"Oh, I know," he said quickly. Aria's friends were surprisingly cool about their relationship. He had thought they'd have to hole up in his apartment forever, or at least until graduation, especially after Ella had gotten the wrong impression about him and Spencer. 'Disappointed' and 'betrayed' were the exact words that erased those baby steps they'd been attempting to make. Coming clean was the last thing he expected they'd be doing anytime soon when Aria told him what Ella had said. Now, he was really glad they had, at least, partially come clean, not that he was looking forward to facing her parents again back home.

Ezra thought back to that night she took him back, and the consequences they'd almost faced for getting caught. Her friends knew all about Noel's blackmail? All about their relationship since November? He saw them every day for weeks after that and they never let on.

"I can't believe you've all known all along... You guys are really good at keeping secrets."

_Understatement of the century," _Spencer thought.

* * *

[Circa Survive is the band Toby and Emily bonded over in the beginning of Season 1. And Toby's got a sticker for Two Tongues in his locker (and so does Hanna in case you care haha). I'm not familiar with either bands' music, but both seem okay from what I've heard. The rest of the bands I mention are pretty awesome. Feel free to check them out.  
And about Ezra looking like Brandon Flowers… I did think that once for a split second until I looked up his picture and realized, no, they don't really look anything alike. But thought it'd be funny to throw that in there as a way for Spencer to embarrass herself. ]


	56. Chapter 56

(Part 3 of 3)

Ezra pushed the shopping cart while Spencer scoured the shelves of the grocery store for the items on her list.

As they walked down the frozen foods aisle, Spencer said, "Hanna wants us to buy some rum. She said she doesn't think she brought enough."

"How much did she bring?" Ezra asked as Spencer opened one of the glass cases and pulled out two bags of frozen strawberries.

"She wouldn't tell me. You can say no if you want," she said as she dropped the bags into the cart. "I just told her I'd ask."

Ezra gave it a second of thought, then said, "I'll buy one bottle, but I'm gonna hold onto it until I see what she brought.. I saw her suitcase. She could have 12 bottles stashed in there easy."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Spencer said. "I saw Caleb lug that thing up the stairs. Who knows what she's got in there."

They both laughed.

"Alright, I'll go to the liquor store when you guys pick up the food," he agreed as they moved on to the next aisle. Toby was calling in the order to the sandwich shop down the block as they spoke.

After that, Ezra was largely silent, except when he was pointing out something Spencer had missed, or giving her feedback on choices, trying to guess what everyone would eat, and telling her not to go overboard since it was a short weekend. In the cereal aisle, he finally said what was on his mind.

"Can I ask you something I shouldn't ask you? But I want to because you will be honest?" He hoped phrasing it this way would ensure her honesty.

She turned around and said, "I suppose... but that's an awfully weird way to start..." Spencer was reminded of another conversation she had had which started out in a similar way.

_The bell rang at the end of English class and Spencer hadn't gotten her essay back while the rest of the class had. She grew even more anxious about it when Mrs. Montgomery said, "Spencer, can I see you after class?"_

_She naturally assumed she bombed the essay and had received a failing grade. Mrs. Montgomery probably wanted to give it to her in private so she wouldn't embarrass herself in front of the other students when she started begging for a second chance, or her head exploded when she saw the 'D.' "She's got my essay," Spencer said in the general direction of the other girls who were unsure if they should wait or not._

_Spencer gathered her things and met Mrs. Montgomery in the front of the classroom. As the other students filed out, Ella handed her the essay. Spencer turned it over and saw an 'A' circled at the top of the page. "It's an A," she stated, shocked._

_"Yes it is," Ella said as the last student left the room. "It's excellent work as usual."_

_Suddenly confused why she was asked to stay behind, Spencer asked, __"Is there something else?"_

_"Yes. I'm going to ask you something and I'm only going to ask it once because I know it's an inappropriate question. I'm asking for your honesty." Before Spencer could respond Ella asked, "Has Ezra Fitz ever made a pass at you or made you feel uncomfortable in any way?"_

_Ella scrutinized her face. "Oh," Spencer said, finally understanding. "No, never. I know Aria started dating him, that's why you're asking, right?"_

_Ella did not respond. _

_"You don't have anything to worry about. He's never done anything like that. And it's not like that with Aria. ... They're still the same people you thought they were. Nothing's changed." _Literally nothing's changed cuz they were already together when you met him.

_Ella nodded, no longer looking at Spencer, but contemplating her words._

_"If I thought he had done something wrong, I would tell you. I swear." Spencer wouldn't have hesitated to turn his ass in if she thought he was hurting her friend._

_Even though Ella promised herself she wouldn't ask a second question, she needed one last assurance from Spencer. "Why were you in his car?"_

_"After the college fair?" Spencer thought quickly. "I was looking for Aria and thought he might know where she was. I didn't think how it would look. Or realize anyone saw us."_

_Satisfied with her answer, Ella finally said, "Thank you," and dismissed Spencer with a slight motion of her hand._

_This conversation took place the morning after Ezra dropped by the Montgomery household for a dinner that never happened. Spencer told Aria all about it at lunch._

"Am I a terrible person?" Ezra searched her face for an answer in case the words about to fall from her lips were a placating lie. His question had nothing to do with the decision to purchase alcohol for minors.

"..No. You're only guilty of falling in love with her, and a victim of circumstance. The fact that you're here right now proves you're not a terrible person, but a very good person." She appeared to be giving her honest opinion. "...Do _you_ think you are?" Spencer had not gotten this impression from him during any particular moment she had spent with him. She suspected, correctly, that he would never have brought it up if Aria were around.

"No. Not _really." Not anymore. Not often..._ "But I wonder sometimes.. what other people think."

"Aria doesn't care what other people think. You should learn to be more like her."

It was a quality he greatly admired her for. "Thank you. For being honest."

Spencer began to turn away and Ezra pushed the cart a few inches forward. "A-as long as I'm asking you things I shouldn't ask, there's something else." His tone was noticeably less serious.

As Toby rounded the corner with a basket on his arm, he saw Spencer patting Ezra's arm and heard her laughingly say, "I'm sure it could be arranged. Just let me know, whenever you want."

"We got everything?" Toby asked surveying the contents of the shopping cart.

Ezra peered at the contents of the basket - bread and cold cuts from the deli counter, nothing that would set off Aria's sensitive gag reflex.

Spencer grabbed a box of Kashi off the shelf. "Now we do." She dropped it into the cart as Ezra picked up a box of Alphabits. "What are you doing?" she exclaimed in horror as he tried to put it in the cart.

"Uhh... buying cereal?" he said, very confused by the very strange reaction.

"We don't eat Alphabits," Spencer declared and took the box from his hand, replacing it on the shelf. Ezra looked to Toby for an explanation. He had none, but was seriously curious about this ban on Alphabits too. Emily nearly jumped out of her seat when he offered her some for breakfast once, and convinced him they should go out for breakfast instead.

Spencer ignored the crazy looks she was getting and said, "Here, get Cheerios instead. They have whole grains," she added, reading the selling point off the yellow box, and placed it in the shopping cart. "Oh, I want to get some fresh fruit too, for Aria. Will she eat blueberries? They've got tons of antioxidants." She also needed to pick up the lemons and limes Hanna asked for.

Deciding to let the cereal incident go, Ezra said, "I'm sure she will, but she may want to sprinkle them on a baked potato or a quesadilla or something."

Spencer laughed. "That's fine by me..."

* * *

maddie: LoL, I know. The scenes with Emily and Fitz on the show _are_ awkward, but it's sweet how he's helping her. Something tells me what happens between Fitz and Emily later this weekend (in my story) will _never_ happen on the show haha. (How do you like that little teaser?)

Thanks again to my readers Notinyourlifetimehoney, maddie, TotalCowGirl, HarrylovesGinny09, hiding .my .heart, and Caligirl28! To everyone else, leave a comment, get a shout out!


	57. Chapter 57

I added a few lines to the end of the last chapter, after Spencer picks up the Kashi. The idea literally just came to me while I was making breakfast this morning. I hope it makes you laugh.

* * *

It was closer to dinner time than lunch when the trio returned with sandwiches for everyone. They were consumed quickly. Everyone was eager to soak up the sun on the beach and all departed to change into their swim suits. Aria put on a red and white polka dot pin-up girl style suit which was a 2-piece, but looked like one.

Ezra said, "Wow," when she emerged from the powder room. He had already changed into a pair of blue and white swim trunks.

"You like?" Aria asked, posing seductively.

"Do you need to ask?"

She cocked her head and asked, "Will you still love me when I'm fat?"

"You could never be fat," he said without skipping a beat.

"Good answer," she said with a smile and single nod.

Aria moved from the doorway toward the tall dresser to find a towel.

Ezra picked his phone up off the nightstand. "Could I, uh, take a picture of you?" he asked.

"You wanna preserve the memory of me at a size 2 since you may never see it again?" she said, looking over her shoulder.

"No, don't be ridiculous. You are beautiful and always will be." This statement elicited a smile from Aria, though he couldn't see it. "Now that we're all official and everything, we still don't have many photos of us together." Only a few from their night in Philly, and the paper bag one which always made him laugh when he thought of it.

"You're right," she agreed, turning around. "Where do you want me?" Aria used her faux sexy voice which made them laugh. She strode back over to the doorway and stretched her arm up the frame. He snapped a photo with his phone.

"Wait one sec," she said, holding up a finger, then rummaging through the vinyl x-ray print cosmetic case sitting on the vanity inside the doorway, and pulled out a shiny little tube of red lipstick. Pinup girls always had flawless bold red lips. She applied it, then made a kissy face at him and smiled, chucking it back it to the open case.

Then she stretched out on the plush chaise lounge in the corner, propping her head up with the back of her right hand and laying her left hand across her hip, and gazed at the lens seductively. After he snapped that photo she sat up on one leg, angled her body away from the camera and rested an elbow on the back of the chair, and delicately grazed her fingers across her chest. _Snap_.

Then Aria moved to the bed, laying down on her stomach, propping her chin up with her fists and letting her feet sway slowly in the air, and looked up at him through her eyelashes. _Snap_. She got up on her knees, put her hands on her hips and made a pouty face. Ezra inched forward and snapped the photo.

Ezra knelt in front of her and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close.

"Not so fast," she said, removing the phone from his hand. She held it out above them and snapped a picture of their smiling faces. "Now it's my turn." She got off the bed and stood in front of it where Ezra had been standing before.

He recreated her second to last pose and did his damnedest to keep a straight face. _Snap._ Then he stood and did a few body builder poses. They couldn't help but laugh as she took the series of snapshots.

Aria fiddled with the phone for a second then said, "Whoops."

"What?"

"I think I just sent that last one to your entire address book," she said, looking up at him with her eyebrows scrunched together.

"What! Are you serious?" He rushed forward to assess the damage.

Before he had a chance to start mentally tallying who exactly received the photo and determine who should get the first apology, she said, "No," with an evil grin.

Relief washed over his face.

"But I did send it to Hardy."

His eyes went wide as an incoming text message popped up on the screen.

.

Hardy: Sexy, dude. You been working out?

.

Aria dropped the phone when Ezra tackled her onto the bed and started tickling her. "I can't believe you did that!"

She laughed uncontrollably, struggling for air.

"This is payback!" he explained, in case she was wondering.

Through the laughter and the squealing, she managed to get out, "I sur-render! I sur-rend-d-er!"

Ezra stopped tickling her. He pinned her wrists above her head and gave her that look, that 'I couldn't love you any more if I tried' look. "You smell like a creamsicle," he stated.

Aria laughed again, still trying to catch her breath. "It's the sunblock."

He continued looking at her, trying to read her next move.

Finally, she caught her breath and reluctantly sighed, "We should get outside. Everyone's probably waiting."

He released her.

* * *

[Link to Aria's swimsuit in my profile.

Since I'm not that great at describing the poses they make, I've put links to examples of what I had in mind in my profile as well.

Notinyourlifetimehoney: I'd say they're positively normal compared to brownie-fried pickles! hahaha

maddie: I have long suspected Ezra as being involved with A, but I truly don't think they'll go there on the show. Suffice to say, Ezra is not A in my story haha, in case you couldn't tell. :D

They're actually gonna go swimming next! Haha. I know we havent seen much of the beach yet on this supposed beach weekend lol. ]


	58. Chapter 58

Thank you to Notinyourlifetimehoney for your suggestion! I didn't realize links were allowed in our profiles. From now on, links to things like songs, outfits, and actors will be listed in my profile.

* * *

Chairs and towels were dragged onto the sand, which began right up in the backyard. It was a private beach, but next to a public area to the left, and separated from the neighbor's area by a cliff-like rock formation on the right which jutted out into the sea.

Toby was the first to dive in, followed quickly by the rest. The water was not particularly warm, but it felt warmer the longer they were in it. Emily and Paige, being competitive swimmers, challenged each other to a race. Each pair went off in a separate direction, including Aria and Ezra who drifted towards the cliffs.

"Can I ask you something?" Ezra said to Aria as they paddled around in the water. Their hair was soaked and water droplets covered their faces.

"Yeah," Aria said, enjoying feeling virtually weightless.

"Why did Spencer have a meltdown when I tried to buy Alphabits at the store earlier? Do you have any idea?" He wasn't sure she would have an answer, but he had to ask.

Aria started laughing, legitimately entertained by the visual. "What happened!" She needed a second to formulate her explanation. "_Our stalker likes to terrorize us with breakfast cereal," _did not seem appropriate.

"I honestly don't know. She practically ripped the box out of my hand," Ezra said, still baffled.

"It's probably cuz they're not healthy enough. And Spencer tends to.. overreact.. to everything," she explained and Ezra seemed to buy it. "She's been feeding me, no, _trying_ to feed me, the weirdest crap lately. Have you ever had a kale smoothie?"

"No," he replied, repulsed by the idea.

"Me neither. I don't care how good she says it tastes, I told her to get it out of my face unless she wanted me to throw up all over the kitchen counter," Aria said, pulling her hair back, wishing she'd put it up in a ponytail.

Ezra laughed and slicked back his own hair.

"I'm her new little project."

"It's sweet," Ezra said.

"That's one word for it," Aria said. "This from a person who would literally bleed caffeine if we pricked her finger. It's not good for you, pregnant or not." A little sea water splashed up at her face and she spit it out, wrinkling her nose.

"Pot call the kettle black much? How many cups were you drinking a day 3 short months ago?"

"A third as many as Spencer. At a third the strength. Have you ever had the _pleasure_ of drinking a cup of coffee made by Spencer 'caffeine is my middle name' Hastings?"

"Nope," he said, knowing it was a rhetorical question.

"Then you couldn't possibly understand. You better hope someone else makes the coffee tomorrow morning." Changing the subject, Aria asked, "When was the last time you were in the ocean?"

"Last summer. What about you?"

"It's been 3 years," she said, lazily propelling herself backward. "Last year, I was in Iceland the whole summer and the water there is way too cold to swim in. There are swimming pools everywhere, and we'd go in the hot springs, but not the ocean." Ezra nodded along as she spoke. "The summer before, we went on vacation, but not to the beach. Swimming at the lake's not really the same."

"No," he agreed.

Ezra let Aria set the pace and take the lead as they drifted along.

"Let me know when you get tired of swimming," Ezra said. "You don't want to overdo it."

"I'm not tired," Aria assured him. "I've gotten a second wind."

They swam toward the base of the cliff where the water swirled gently. The sun was low and the sky was streaked with pink and purple.

"Are you having fun?" she asked, floating until her back was up against the smooth surface.

Ezra said, "Yes," as he neared her.

"Want to have a little more?" Aria's hands, which had been skimming the surface of the water around her, disappeared then reappeared seconds later with the bottom half of her swimsuit wrapped around her wrist.

"Aria!" he laughed. "Your friends are right there!" He gestured toward them, but they were not within sight. The rocks were blocking all signs of life. This little cove was entirely secluded.

He held onto her waist while they bobbed up and down. The only sounds came from the water lapping and birds flying overhead. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a long kiss.

He stared deep into her eyes and a tiny adoring smile tugged at the corners of his lips. He sighed, then kissed her, harder this time. Their heart rates were already up from the constant effort of kicking their feet to stay afloat. His tongue pushed its way into her mouth, licking hers with a fervor. She kept one arm wrapped around his neck, while the other reached down inside his waistband and stroked him. He immediately responded to her touch and pressed her into him by the small of her back. Aria tugged at the waistband of his swim trunks. He removed them completely and had the foresight to sling them over his arm, knowing he could never live down a stark naked walk of shame.

Ezra's eyes scoured the wall behind her and he reached out for a crag a few feet to their right. He pushed her body into the little nook beside it and found his footing on a ledge below. Aria smiled at how nicely her plan was working out and her free hand resumed its stroking, causing Ezra to let out a brief moan. Their bodies collided and she inhaled sharply, feeling him stiff between her legs. Clinging to his chest, she lowered herself onto him and shivered, partially from the sensation, and partially from the cold wall behind her back.

With her legs wrapped around him, he began to thrust, struggling to keep his footing and them both close to the wall. Aria's hands were in his wet hair and she nibbled on his bottom lip, and drove herself down onto him, countering every movement with one of her own. He began to push deeper and deeper, gripping that piece of rock for leverage, and catching each moan that escaped her mouth in his, until she began to cry out and he felt her muscles spasm. He came seconds later, exhaling a long breath while holding her tightly.

She held on to him for a few silent seconds, soaking up the moment, then they broke apart. Aria dipped entirely under the water then reemerged quickly to get the hair out of her face. She slipped the bottom half of her swim suit back on and began floating on her back. With a swift motion, she kicked off the wall and began swimming away while Ezra slid his suit back on.

"Wait for me," he called and took off after her.


	59. Chapter 59

Back on dry land, the girls put on cover-ups and loose sweaters while the boys wore t-shirts. The sun had gone down and there was a slight chill in the air. Spencer and Toby brought drinks from the informal restaurant/bar next door to the group assembled in the bonfire pit a little ways down the beach. They all cozied up to their significant others on the log benches and passed around drinks and sticks for s'mores.

Caleb disappeared for a few minutes then returned with his guitar. There were scratches from the accident and he had had to replace a few strings, but it was no worse for wear. The music piped through the speakers up the beach drifted quietly through the air, not quite reaching the bonfire. Caleb began strumming, no tune in particular, just to inject a little music into their circle.

Eventually Caleb landed on a real song, perhaps because the chords he was playing reminded him of it. Aria recognized the tune right away and thought it captured the carefree feeling in the air perfectly. She began singing along.

_My head is stuck in the clouds  
__She begs me to come down  
__Says, "Boy, quit foolin' around"  
__I told her, "I love the view from up here  
__Warm sun and wind in my ear  
__We'll watch the world from above  
__As it turns to the rhythm of love"_

The couples quieted their chit chat and swayed to the music. Stray bar patrons gathered round to listen. Caleb hummed along and harmonized on the chorus.

_We may only have tonight  
__But till the morning sun, you're mine  
__All mine  
__Play the music low  
__And sway to the rhythm of love_

_My heart beats like a drum  
__A guitar string to the strum  
__A beautiful song to be sung  
__She's got blue eyes deep like the sea  
__That roll back when she's laughing at me  
__She rises up like the tide  
__The moment her lips meet mine_

_We may only have tonight  
__But till the morning sun, you're mine  
__All mine  
__Play the music low  
__And sway to the rhythm of love  
_

_When the moon is low  
__We can dance in slow motion  
__And all your tears will subside  
__All your tears will dry  
_

_And long after I've gone  
__You'll still be humming along  
__And I will keep you in my mine  
__The way you make love so fine_

_We may only have tonight  
__But till the morning sun, you're mine  
__All mine  
__Play the music low  
__And sway to the rhythm of love  
__Play the music low  
__And sway to the rhythm of love  
__Yeah, sway to the rhythm of love_

Ezra watched her while she sang so freely and easily. He really couldn't imagine what he ever did to deserve such a perfect night, or such a perfect girl.

.

That night, Ezra and Aria giggled and kissed their way down the hall leading to their bedroom, blissful after spending such an incredible day with one another. They fell into bed together, Aria at first content to let him take control, but then instinct took over as usual. When she started moving her hips together with him and kissing his neck, he said, "Just," stilling her movements, running his fingers lightly over her lips, "let me." That was when she realized tonight was going to be different, and she relinquished control completely.

Though Ezra knew the weekend was far from over, he had this unshakeable feeling that this could be the last time they would get to be together and couldn't help needing to show her what he felt for her. The way he made love to her was so intimate, so loving, it was unlike any other night they'd ever spent together. Each thrust was slow, powerful and deliberate, a clear, perfect expression of exactly how much he loved and cherished her. He watched her fixedly, as strangled noises escaped her throat and she struggled to maintain eye contact while the indescribable sensations built up inside her, and she surrendered.

Once again clearheaded, Aria tried to make out his face in the darkness, finding a determined expression upon it as he continued taking long purposeful strokes, seeing how hard he was trying not to lose control, and something else, a hint of sadness in his eyes which she could not comprehend.

Overwhelmed by this irrational fear, and overcome with the emotion he'd been able to suppress for months, all he could think was '_I don't want to lose you.' _She had never seen him looking so vulnerable. "Let go," she whispered, hugging his body, bringing his face down to her chest. "Let it go," she said and he did. She tilted her hips, gripping him from behind and pulling him in as he pumped frantically, expelling warm heavy breath against her neck and filling her to the hilt. She had never felt closer to him than she did this night.

No words were spoken in the moments to follow while she held him and they came down from their high, nor when she slipped into the light and gauzy garments laying nearby which constituted pajamas.

Aria came back to spoon with him in the luxurious bed, finding as always that their forms melded together perfectly. Ezra acknowledged that he had been caught up in anxiety and that he was nowhere near losing her, not in this moment, not ever hopefully. As he had done many times before, he told himself to stop living in the uncertain future and live in the now, the perfect unparalleled present moment, embracing the two things he loved most in the world at once. After a few tranquil minutes, Ezra asked quietly, "What's it like, for you?"

She understood the question. Sleepy and fully satisfied, she answered, trying to formulate her thoughts into words as best she could, "It's like, when you were inside me, you left a little piece of yourself behind."

Ezra contemplated this and nuzzled his chin into her hair as he said, "It shouldn't have happened." Aria understood he meant this literally. In this peaceful and precious moment, they were communicating on a heretofore unknown level.

She spoke slowly. "But it did, and now, there's this, new _life_, _in_ me, and, it's like, in some bizarre way, you're always with me." She sometimes couldn't wrap her head around it. And neither could he. This thing they had been actively trying to prevent, well, it happened anyway, and they were glad. What else could that be said about? 'Yeah, we really tried not to let those zoo animals escape, but when they did, we were really happy about it.' It was a strange thought.

"She's you," Aria continued. "She's part of you. And me."

"You're growing a person," he said slowly, with amazement. "Has it sunk in? An actual real live person. And she'll be ours."

"It got so real seeing her for the first time yesterday," she said softly, still in awe. Ezra silently agreed and Aria snuggled closer, settling her head tiredly into the soft pillow. The she asked, "What's it like, for you?"

"It's like… you're doing the hard part," he said, "growing a person and all. I was there for the fun bit at the beginning, and now… I'm rather useless."

"You're not useless," she said, nearly inaudibly, on the very edge of slumber. "You're everything."

* * *

[The song she sings is Rhythm of Love by the Plain White Ts - link in my profile]

* * *

So here's the deal, remember I said I'd written the rest of what happens after Jackie leaves and Ezra helps Aria with her little problem in his office? I've been fiddling with it and I think I'm finally happy with it, though I admit it's a little weird and not quite like the other chapters. Ultimately, I want the story as a whole to feel complete, and I felt like the early chapters were missing something and this (longass) scene includes a lot of the stuff I couldn't work in or was only able to touch on in the other chapters, but in my mind always took place.

What's gonna happen is tomorrow there's a flashback, the next day I'll publish Part III of the office scene (mature content, feel free to skip it if it's not your thing, though this is an M-rated story so...), Part IV on Wednesday, Part V on Thursday, and Friday we'll pick up the next morning at the beach house. You won't get any alerts until then since I've made space by combining other short chapters.

I know this is not the way things are usually done, so apologies for going out of order. I'll try not to do it again, but no promises cuz I consider this thing a constant work in progress. Thanks again for reading. ]


	60. Chapter 60

[Flashback]

"Aria, why are we even having this conversation? I'm-" Ezra shook his head, frustrated, and frankly irritated he had to spell this out for her. She looked at him with anticipation. "I'm already in love with someone else."

It would have been the perfect moment for a kiss had they not been standing in the school parking lot mere yards away from a gymnasium full students and teachers. She wished she had the power to whisk them away to a more private locale with the snap of her fingers, or conjure a bubble around them, or temporarily freeze time. A tiny smile rose to her lips.

"There is no one else I want to be with. Didn't I prove that to you 3 nights ago?"

Her eyes were suddenly ablaze with desire recalling their perfect night together. She nodded her head ever so slightly.

"And I know I can be a jerk sometimes, but do you really think I'd just move on to the next girl less than 72 hours later just because I'd be able to hold her hand in public?"

Aria shook her head the slightest bit and inhaled a long slow breath. He watched her, feeling the extreme electricity between them and knowing there was nothing he could do about it. If not for those idiots making noise nearby, he'd have her pressed up against the door of the car behind her and be running his hands all over her tight little body. That see-through dress would be hiked up around her hips and she'd be yelping repeatedly in blissful agony every time he shoved her harder and harder against that car, tugging on that ponytail and gnawing on her soft skin. She leaned back an infinitesimal amount, as if reading his thoughts, and licked her lips. He felt his heart thumping inside his chest, the lustful gaze becoming ever more difficult to break with each passing second.

He licked his lips and managed to speak. "Then why the tears?" Ezra's hands remained steadfastly in his pockets, preventing them from brushing away the remnants of that fallen tear, and doing many other things. Unspeakable things.

She took a deep breath. "I'm afraid I'll lose you. I'm afraid _this_ won't be enough for you."

"That's one of the most absurd things you've ever said to me." His tone wasn't joking or light. It was incredulous. "_I'm_ not going anywhere. _You_ are _more_ than enough for me, _more _than I deserve."

Her features arranged themselves into a slight scowl. "Why wouldn't you deserve me?" she asked slowly, exhaling.

Ezra leaned imperceptibly closer to her. "It might have something to do with all the lecherous thoughts I'm having about you right now and the fact we are standing outside your high school dance."

The tiny smile returned to her face, as well as the fire behind her eyes. "Tell me," she breathed. Her tongue swept across her upper lip. Heat diffused off her body. He felt it even though they stood over a foot apart.

Images raced through his head, images he couldn't bring himself to vocalize. Aria could read his hunger in the way he angled his body towards her, in the way he was just barely biting down on his lower lip, in the way his chest rose and fell a bit too quickly, and in the way he looked deep into her eyes, unblinking.

"I'll tell you," she said, sensing he was never going to let her in on his thoughts. Her palms gripped the curved surface of the solid car behind her. "I want to feel your tongue, in my mouth," she said slowly. "I want to feel your hands, on my hips." She slid down a little lower on the car lessening the space between them a scant amount. "I want to feel your skin, on my skin." She tilted her head back microscopically, and said, "And I want to feel you, so deep inside me, I can't think straight."

He swallowed hard and continued breathing briskly, trying to get it under control. His gaze penetrated her dark irises glistening in the light from the street lamps. No one was around anymore. No one would see them if they ducked into a dark corner nearby, or into his car parked right behind him. _Stop it._ He squeezed his eyes shut.

"We can't do this," he said through gritted teeth.

"Not here…" she purred.

"No. Not anywhere. Not again. _Not_ while I'm your teacher."

Her face fell and her brow furrowed. "You think that was another one time thing?" She had no idea he would pull this.

"It _has_ to be," he said, clenching his fists. He sounded angry, but it was not directed toward her, or even himself. His anger was directed at the universe for putting them in this situation.

"You're wrong," she stated absolutely.

"Aria, I don't think you know what it's taking for me to not have my hands on you right now. My head is actually pounding. Did you notice how distracted I was in class yesterday? I _can't_ get you _out_ of my _head_. And the more you make me want you, the sooner we're going to get caught. It's as simple as that. Do you realize how wrong it is what we're doing right now? Just standing here? Anyone can read this body language. Anyone can see we're not out here in the dark discussing Gatsby's American dream. We can't _do_ this anymore!"

"Stop yelling at me," she whimpered. He hadn't raised the volume of his voice, but his tone and demeanor constituted yelling. A single tear slid down her cheek, and a trembling hand wiped it away. She looked at him, lips pressed together, forcing the tears down.

An incoherent noise escaped his throat. Ezra forced his hands deeper into his pockets to prevent his arms from enveloping her small frame in an effort to protect her from anything that could ever cause her pain. But he was the source of her pain, and he knew it. "_This_ is why I don't deserve you. Because I'm an asshole who yells at you 5 minutes after telling you I love you." He exhaled. "I'm sorry."

She didn't have anything to say yet, so she just stood there, motionless, except for the movement of her chest, and studied his inscrutable face.

"It wasn't like this last time." He shook his head. "You understood."

Aria found her words. And they packed a punch. "This is _not_ the same. Last time, last time was about this physical _need_, this _irresistible_, _inevitable_ _pull_ between us. Neither of us could have stopped it if we tried. This time, _this time_ you made a choice. You made love to me, and now you want us to go back to the way things were?"

"Noo. I want _you_. I _want_ you." His frustration was more apparent than ever.

"You can _have_ me. Why are you fighting it?"

"Because the circumstances haven't changed. We thought they would, but they didn't. I still have to see you in class every day and pretend I don't love you. It's hard enough without thinking about all the things I could do to you later, or all the things we did the night before."

"Get over it."

"What?"

"Get over it," she repeated, enunciating each word. "Learn to compartmentalize. You've been doing it for months."

"Aria."

"No. It's not up for discussion. You're going to go home and think about it. And you're going to realize you're wrong. I can handle it. You can handle it. You're just not trying hard enough. And that's the last thing either of us are going to say on the matter."

She was so sure of herself, and stubborn. It was no use arguing. He decided he _would_ go home and think about it. What else could he do?

Aria's phone buzzed in her purse. She tore her eyes away and pulled it out to read the text. _I swear to god, if this is A-_, she thought.

.

Spencer: Leaving with or without you…

Aria: Without me.

.

"Do you have to go?" he asked.

"I'm supposed to sleep over Spencer's tonight, but I told her to leave without me," she replied, putting the phone back in her purse.

"Is that wise? Tonight isn't a g-"

"Don't be so presumptuous. I meant what I said. Tonight you're going to think things over."

"And I will, but why did you tell her to leave?"

"I just _need_ a _minute_ without their-" Aria let out a breath. Truthfully, she needed a minute without A, and a minute to not have to think about Alison's murder, or spend the night sleeping next door to her murderer.

"Is everything alright? Did you have a fight?"

"No," she said dismissively.

"Are you mad at her for asking me to dance?"

Aria laughed. "No." _Grateful._

"Why did she anyway?"

"I don't know, I think Hanna dared her to. It has nothing to do with us," Aria said quickly.

He had no reason to doubt her. "So why don't you want to spend time with your friends? You can tell me to stuff it if you want. It's none of my business."

"It's nothing. I love my friends. I just always get sucked into the… drama." 'Drama' was an understatement. "And I'd like a minute to not have to think about it."

"That's fair." He understood teenaged girls were prone to drama. "..So what do you want to do? Go back inside?"

"No."

"Are you hungry? Do you want to get something to eat?"

"Actually, I am a little hungry. The snacks in there sucked. Except the hummus. That's all I ate."

"What, with your fingers?" he laughed at the visual his mind came up with of her crouched behind the snack table sneaking scoops of hummus from the bowl using nothing but her fingers. He'd seen her do it at home when the baby carrots ran out.

"No! There were pretzels. But the pretzels were merely the delivery system for the hummus."

He laughed again. "Well I'm hungry too. There's probably a drive-thru open somewhere. I'll drop you home, or home-adjacent, later."

"No, I still have to go to Spencer's. You can drop me Hastings Manor-adjacent."

"Alright," he laughed.

"Okay. I'll go tell my mom I'm leaving, with the girls."

"I'll pull the car around the block, under that walnut tree, you know?"

"Mmhm." She started to walk past him toward the school.

"Aria," he said, grabbing her hand. Her eyes bounced wildly from his hand up to his face. He let go. "I'm sorry for yelling, and for making you feel… used." He regretted being distant the past few days and not being more sensitive to her feelings. He had thought it was the right thing to do, but wasn't so sure anymore.

"I don't feel used. Weren't you listening?"

"For making you feel like I don't care then. I love you so much and I hate to see you hurting, especially when I'm the cause."

"It's okay… I know you care."

"And I'm sorry I have to pick you up around the block and drop you off on the corner. And that I can't hold your hand right now."

She gave him a small appreciative smile. "Okay. Enough apologizing. Let's go eat."

* * *

[To refresh your memory - a link to this scene in 1.14 Careful What U Wish 4 can be found in my profile. ]

* * *

Don't forget, you won't get alerts for the next 3 chapters. New order =  
Office scene Part I (Jackie) - chapter 19  
Part II (locking the door) - chapter 20  
Part III (mature content) - chapter 21 (Tuesday) (little teaser for hiding .my .heart - Hanna makes an appearance in this chapter teeheehee)  
Part IV - chapter 22 (Wednesday)  
Part V - chapter 23 (Thursday)  
I usually publish in the afternoons so check back then. Sorry again for making this so complicated!


	61. Chapter 61

The next morning, Aria awoke in Ezra's arms. The feeling of his abs warm against her back and the sumptuous covers beneath them was so unbelievably comfortable, she didn't want to move a muscle, but had already done before she opened her eyes. When she stirred, Ezra woke too and inhaled the salty scent of her hair. He tensed up all of his muscles, stretching, but barely actually moving and his eyes combed every inch of her body which was visible to him where they lay. The sun shone brightly through the wall of windows illuminating Aria's fair skin which had a glow all its own. A glow he put there.

She turned over to face him and said, "I love waking up to you." This was a first. The handful of times she had slept over his place ended abruptly with the unpleasant sound of a blaring alarm clock. She would always need to get herself to Spencer's house early to uphold her alibi.

"I could get used to this," he said sincerely.

They lay together inches apart just staring into each others' eyes. Aria observed how the flecks of blue reflected the light and noticed a stray eyelash just below the outer corner of Ezra's left eye. "Don't move," she said as she pressed her pinkie finger to it. He blinked, but remained still. She held the finger between them with the eyelash stuck to the tip and said, "Make a wish." Ezra closed his eyes and blew a gentle stream of air at it through his lips. When he opened his eyes, the eyelash had vanished and Aria let her hand fall. "What'd you wish for?" she asked.

"If I tell you, it won't come true." And he wanted nothing more than for it to come true.

She said nothing, guessing he wished for the same thing she'd wished for on her birthday.

This entire time, Aria's ankles had been tangled up with Ezra's, becoming even more so when she flipped around. She slid her toe up along his calf and he took this as a signal to pull her to him with the arm already positioned underneath her. He pressed his lips to hers before placing open mouth kisses slowly down her chin and neck and chest. His hands tugged at the extra loose racer-back tank top she had worn to bed, a formality really, shifting it to the side to expose her breast and began to suck on it gently. Aria moaned quietly and relaxed into the pillows. Then she winced when his tongue felt a little too rough.

He stopped immediately and asked, "Did I hurt you?"

"No. Just a little sore."

Taking the hint, he placed a kiss atop her swollen breast and continued his trail downwards. They'd never done the morning sex thing, in all technicalities, and both were eager to fulfill this new mission while the opportunity allowed. This weekend could be full of firsts. Ezra pushed the fabric up her abdomen and let his tongue linger around her navel. She groaned. The skin there was so sensitive, he barely had to touch her to send sparks zinging through her. Just as his fingers found the waistband of her shorts and she lifted her hips, there came a knock at the door.

"Are you guys up yet? Breakfast is ready," Hanna called.

A lower voice whispered, "Let them sleep!" It was Emily, who had scrambled down the hall after Hanna to stop her, but it was too late.

Aria threw her head back on the pillow in frustration. "We're up. Be there in a minute!"

Ezra scowled at her.

"Everyone else is up. If we don't get out there right now, they're gonna be cracking jokes all day."

Ezra rolled onto his back and ran a hand through his untidy hair. The mission would be postponed to a later date, preferably tomorrow if Ezra had any say.

"I'll make it up to you later," she promised, tousling the hair he had just smoothed back.

Aria hopped up and splashed some water on her face. She slipped a light amorphously-shaped short-sleeved sweater over her head while Ezra threw on some shorts and a t-shirt over his blue boxers, covered in little life rafts.

They walked hand-in-hand down the hall until Aria stopped in her tracks at the entrance of the kitchen. The others looked up just in time to see her hand fly to her mouth and Aria disappear. Ezra looked around, momentarily uncertain, then followed her back to the bedroom.

.

He returned a minute later, flip flops clacking, announcing his arrival before he turned the corner. Spencer stopped flipping pancakes and Emily looked up from her cereal at Ezra with anticipation.

"She says it was the bacon," he announced.

"Consider it taken care of," Caleb said. He picked the plate up off the counter and brought it to the patio. Toby started to follow him.

"Uh, save me a piece?" Ezra requested.

"You got it," Toby said with a crooked smile.

"Is she okay?" Spencer asked, pouring coffee from the pot into a wide-mouthed mug painted like a pineapple. "Is there anything else we can do?" She felt bad. The same thing happened about a week ago at her house. They had ordered in pizza and Spencer got a cobb salad on the side. Aria ran out of the room when she opened the lid.

Ezra also felt bad, but he was used to it by now. "No, she'll be out in a minute."

Spencer handed Ezra the cup, which he took with smile. He wondered if Aria had mentioned he was a coffee-drinker, or if it was Spencer's default to automatically hand everyone a cup of her favorite addictive substance. "Do you want some pancakes?" she offered. "This batch has chocolate chips." The first batch with blueberries was polished off about 20 minutes ago.

"Sure. Thanks." Ezra pulled up a stool next to Hanna, and sipped the warm coffee. It was literally the strongest brew he'd ever tasted, and he was used to drinking black coffee. He cleared his throat and spooned in 3 scoops of sugar, hoping it would cut the bitter flavor and wondered how Spencer didn't bounce right off the walls drinking this stuff every day, multiple times a day. How did she ever sleep?

"Sorry if I woke you guys up," Hanna apologized. "I wasn't thinking." Hanna didn't get to sleep 'til late and Caleb dragged her out of bed earlier than she would have liked, though she knew exactly how to get him back for it. She hadn't thought it fair Aria and Ezra get to sleep in while the rest of them were up, so she acted without thinking it through, as was often the case. And truth be told, she was a teeny bit hungover.

_"You didn't wake us"_ didn't seem the most appropriate response. "It's alright. We didn't mean to sleep in so late," Ezra said, stirring the sugar, and he took another sip. It wasn't terrible, but probably contained twice his weekly allotment of caffeine. He decided not to finish it.

Aria reappeared in the kitchen.

"Hey." "Good morning." "How are you feeling?" the girls said simultaneously. Paige looked on sympathetically.

"Better. Thanks." She pulled up a stool next to Ezra and exchanged a significant look with him over the coffee cup. Their eyes carried on an entire conversation no one else noticed. Hers said 'I told you so' and his apologized for ever doubting her.

"I'm sorry," Spencer said apologetically. "If I'd known, I-"

"Whatever," Aria cut her off. "I'm used to it. The baby hates every food I used to like. And she's hard to argue with." She took a sip from Ezra's mug even though he was shaking his head, warning against it, and made a 'blech' face, briefly sticking out her tongue.

Spencer laughed while plating up the last of the pancakes, completely unaware of the sub-conversation going on behind her.

Hanna nudged Ezra's arm. "If you want some of that bacon, you better get some now. If I know Caleb, and I do, it's nearly gone already."

"Thanks."

Spencer handed him a plate and Ezra joined the boys out on the patio, conveniently leaving the pineapple mug behind.

"Congratulations. About the baby, by the way," Paige said as Spencer slid a plate over to Aria. Emily hadn't mentioned the baby to Paige for the same reason Spencer hadn't mentioned it to Toby. _"It's morning sickness,"_ Emily had said when Aria turned green and vanished. The newcomer to the group had actually found it a little patronizing when he told her to take a nap yesterday, but now understood why.

"Thank you," Aria said, while pouring the syrup.

"That's gotta be exciting."

Fluffy and golden brown, she eyed them hungrily. "Exciting. Terrifying. Mind-boggling. It's a lot of things," she said, then took a bite.

Paige nodded and Aria said, "Omigod, Spence, these pancakes are amazing."

* * *

[In case you missed it, 3 new chapters went up over the past 3 days - 21, 22, 23. I added it because I felt like I made the early pregnancy too easy, and never properly let you in on Ezra's thoughts. Plus there was a little bit of a cliffhanger, not that it matters as you all know how it turns out, but new readers might be fooled. Hope you liked it. ]


	62. Chapter 62

After breakfast, the group dispersed. Ezra got first shower because Aria wanted to help Spencer with the dishes. Afterwards, Aria took a shower then applied her makeup at the vanity. She fixed her hair into loose beach curls then pulled it back into a messy bun letting tendrils fall to frame her face. She wore black pedal pushers and a loose gauzy white blouse over a black cami.

She found Ezra outside on the patio with his laptop.

"Emily and I are goin-a ride bikes into town. I'd invite you, but there are only two," Aria said, pulling the big sunglasses down from her hair over her eyes. The bikes belonged to Spencer and Melissa. Aria had found them in the garage.

Though riding his bike was one of his favorite activities, Ezra said, "I couldn't go anyway. I have to look over some assignments and post some new material."

She stood behind him and looked at the screen. "Didn't the course just start? You've already assigned homework?"

"That's the way it works. I had them read a novella beforehand and turn in a 1-page response paper before we start the real coursework," he said, using a light touch to move the cursor around the screen.

"Okay, _Professor Fitz," _Aria said, mussing up his hair. "If that's the way you think you'll win over your students..."

"I think I'm quite good at that actually, wouldn't you agree?" he asked facetiously, looking up at her over his shoulder.

"Whatever you say," she smiled. "We should be back in a hour or so," Aria said and gave him a quick peck.

"Okay. Be careful. See you later."

.

Aria and Emily set a leisurely pace biking through the neighborhoods into town.

"Let's stop at that farmer's market on the way back," Aria said, pointing across the street.

"I wonder if they have a fortune teller like the one by us," Emily said.

"Probably not," Aria laughed. "I think that lady with the tube top is one-of-a-kind. Did you ever go to her for a reading?"

"No, have you?" Emily asked as she came up beside Aria.

"Once."

"And?"

Aria felt her phone buzz in her back pocket. "And I can't say much about her ability to see the future, but she makes really good apple butter, I'll give her that." _She didn't see Maeby coming. No one did._

"Hmm," Emily laughed as Aria pulled out her phone.

.

Ella: Is everything okay?

.

Aria rested her wrists on the center of the handlebars, freeing up her thumbs to text, holding the phone over the wicker basket above the wheel and kept pedaling.

"I think there's a law against texting and driving," Emily joked.

.

Aria: Yes :D

.

She laughed. "It's just Ella checking up on me. I forgot to text her this morning." Aria had let her know when they had arrived and said she'd text again in the morning, but she had been understandably preoccupied. "Here, take a picture," she said, handing Emily her phone across the gap between them.

Emily took it easily and asked, "Should we stop?" and used one hand to navigate the menu to the camera.

"No, just go ahead." Aria smiled at the camera and Emily snapped the picture of her face while they were both in motion. She was too close to get a wider shot. "Thanks," Aria said as Emily carefully handed the phone back.

Aria slid her thumb around the screen. Emily asked, "Are you sending that to her?"

"Mmhm."

"Wouldn't it be better if it came from me?" Emily asked.

Aria paused to consider it. "But wouldn't it be like I've got something to prove if it came from you?"

"Maybe, but I don't think so," Emily said. "What are the chances she'd believe you'd actually bring him with us? Or that he'd actually come?"

"I'd guess pretty low..," Aria said with a chuckle. If questioned, Aria and Ezra agreed to say he spent the weekend in New York.

"So we should both be in it." Emily stopped next to a tree and hopped off the bike, setting the kickstand. Aria did the same, leaning hers against the tree. She sent off the photo to Ezra instead. Emily pulled her phone from the pocket of her shorts and held it out in front of them. "Smile," she said. The girls leaned their heads together and Emily snapped the photo. If Ella should ask why the photo came from Emily, Aria would tell her Emily's camera phone was better, which was true. But Aria didn't have to worry about it because Emily sent the photo off with an accompanying text.

.

Emily: I'm taking good care of her. :)

.

Aria got a return picture from Ezra and smiled at it, then the girls put their phones away and got back on the bikes. Not a moment later, Emily got a text.

.

Ella: Thank you, Emily. Don't spend too much time in the sun.

.

"She says thanks for the picture, and don't spend too much time in the sun," Emily reported.

.

Emily: We won't.

.

"I told her we won't," she said, then stuffed the phone into her pocket one last time.

After a few seconds of pedaling and enjoying the breeze, Aria asked, "So where's Paige?" Ezra could take care of himself, but Paige might feel abandoned being left in a house with a group of people she hardly knew.

"She's hanging with Hanna," Emily said.

Hanna was probably chewing her ear off, Aria figured. "How are you guys?" she asked.

"We're good. Taking it slow."

The girls hit a gravely patch of pavement. "And how are you? ..Does it bother you to see Spencer and Toby together?" They hadn't talked about Toby since the night Emily revealed her secret and Aria revealed hers.

"No. I'm happy they are happy." Aria would have been satisfied with this answer, but Emily continued talking after a few seconds. "I'm not gonna lie… there was an element of jealousy on my part at the beginning. Toby was _my_ friend and it was a little hard to see them together at first."

"I don't think any of us saw that coming," Aria remarked.

"No," Emily agreed, then took it back. "Well, I sort of did. I noticed when she started looking at him differently, I remember when they were getting closer. And he stood me up once to be with her. I can't say it didn't hurt a little bit.. But I was happy for them, really," she added sincerely. "When she broke his heart though, I started thinking, what if? What if I had chosen _him_?" Not that Emily would take back anything that happened with Maya. She helped Emily come to terms with who she really was, and she was the first girl Emily loved who loved her back in the same way. But Toby was her best friend and always saw and accepted her for who she was and she couldn't help wondering if he was meant to be something more. Being with Toby was easy, and fun. Their undefined relationship was only about them, in the here and now. They never discussed Spencer, or talked about the future; they were just themselves, together, until reality came crashing down, as it tends to do, when you least expect.

"She didn't exactly have a choice though," Aria said gently, not judging Emily, but seeing both sides and knowing what it's like to have A meddle in your relationship.

"You always have a choice. That's something Toby says." Emily didn't blame Spencer though. A threatened to hurt Toby. She probably would have done the same thing if she were in Spencer's shoes, and she still worried about him sometimes since they had gotten back together.

"I guess that's true." Every day Aria made the choice to lie, to her friends, to her parents, even to Ezra, but she always felt her reasons justified it.

"So I started thinking what if," Emily continued. "I knew he once had feelings for me. I may have taken advantage of that to satisfy my own curiosities, and we started down this path which almost ruined everything."

"And now?" Aria asked looking over at Emily.

"Now I know it wasn't meant to be," she said. "And I know nothing can come between us. If we can get through this with our friendship intact, we can get through anything."

* * *

[Stay tuned if you wanna know what Ezra does while she's gone. Hint hint to hiding .my .heart - it involves Hanna! ]


	63. Chapter 63

Hope the formatting in the middle of this chapter isn't too weird. I couldn't think of a better way to do it.

* * *

While Ezra worked, his phone, on the table beside his laptop, beeped. He opened the attachment to find a photo of Aria's smiling face, half obscured by her giant sunglasses, which reflected a fuzzy image of some sky behind what could only be Emily's hand holding a phone. It made him happy, both to see her face and to know she was okay. He had been slightly anxious since she'd left, but told himself to quit worrying.

Ezra set his phone to camera mode and snapped a photo of himself leaning down next to the laptop, frowning about having to do work on vacation. He didn't actually mind though because it gave him something to do. If he didn't have it, he'd find another way to keep himself busy, like turn on the jacuzzi about 5 feet to his left, or read one of the books Aria had brought, or go find one of the boys to talk to, or attempt to work on a story he'd been writing on and off.

As he sent off the photo, he overheard some voices from the other side of the tree-lined fence.

"Which color do you want? I brought hot pink, a shimmery purple, this neon green and this teal blue." He heard chairs being dragged and glass touching glass.

"I like the blue," a female voice said.

"You know what would look cute? Doing a neon stripe over the blue."

Someone, obviously Caleb, started tuning his guitar.

"Oo yeah."

"I could do the stripes for you if you want. I always screw it up when I try to do it on myself."

"Sure, thanks."

Ezra determined Hanna and Paige must be painting their nails. Until now, he hadn't realized right on the other side of this private patio was yet another outdoor seating area.

After a few seconds, Hanna said, "Do you have my lip balm?"

"No, did you lose it again?" Caleb asked as he plucked another string.

"No, I _misplaced_ it," she corrected.

"For the 12th time in as many hours."

"Forget it," she said to Caleb, then asked Paige, "Do you have any lip balm?"

"Upstairs.." she said.

"Did you check your pocket?" Caleb asked before Hanna made Paige go upstairs to get hers.

"Of course I check-" Hanna started to say as she patted her shorts and discovered the tube of lightly tinted cherry-flavored lip balm in her back pocket.

"Where it always is," Caleb said.

Ezra could imagine Hanna rolling her eyes at him.

He resumed his work, listening to the girls' chit chat and Caleb's background music. He seemed to be composing a song.

"Sooo how weird is it to be hanging out here with Mr. Fitz?" Ezra wouldn't know, but Paige checked all around before she said this. "You guys all had him for English last year, right?"

"Yeah, did you have him too?" Hanna asked.

"Yeah, I did, 6th period. And now he's, like, seen me in my pajamas. Am I the only one who thinks it's weird? Emily's totally nonchalant about it."

Ezra wondered if he should stop eavesdropping, but was extremely curious where this conversation was going.

"It was weird at first. When Aria first told us she was dating him, I was, like, 'what!' But now he's just Aria's boyfriend. Aria's hot, older boyfriend. ..Sorry, sweetie," she added when Caleb gave her a look from his place on the bench against the fence.

Ezra grinned. He had been planning to download some music Toby had recommended to him, but was glad he hadn't started yet because they might have heard it playing and realized he was there. He didn't think he'd ever get another chance to hear Aria's friends' uncensored thoughts, and their opinions did actually matter to him, so he kept quiet, and even set his phone to silent for good measure.

"Plus, he's here, right? He's hanging out with us. It's really not that weird anymore. But I _am_ still a little surprised he came. You don't wanna know what I did to him last time we all hung out."

"Yes I do," Paige corrected her.

"I made him sing karaoke," Hanna said and realized it didn't sound that bad saying it out loud.

Paige didn't think so either, expecting to hear about some crazy prank Hanna pulled. "That's not so bad. I made Emily sing karaoke on our first date."

"You did?" she exclaimed. "She said she'd never done it before..."

"She did," Paige confirmed, understanding why Emily would lie. Their first date was a secret because Paige had still been in the closet. "I dragged her up on stage to sing a Pink song."

"Me too!" Hanna said. "Not for a Pink song, I picked a song with some.. colorful lyrics and dedicated it to Fitz, it was hilarious."

"And you made him sing too? Isn't that kinda... mean?"

_Yes._

"No!" Hanna defended herself once again. "Maybe if he'd sucked, which is what I was hoping for. But he picked, like, the _sappiest_ love song known to man. I thought I might barf."

Paige laughed again at Hanna's over-exaggerations. "Were you at the talent show? Did you see him sing with Aria?"

"No. I missed it," Hanna replied, still ticked off about it. "But I heard it was epic."

"I saw it," Caleb spoke up for the first time.

"No you didn't," Hanna said. Caleb nodded his head, disagreeing. "How?" she asked. Ezra also wanted to know.

"Mrs. Welch had the A/V club film the whole show. They saved it on the school server, so I hacked in and downloaded the video." Caleb was curious how the performance went in his absence and upon viewing the video, decided Fitz was a passable replacement.

Ezra would have asked Mrs. Welch for a copy had he known Caleb wanted to see it, but reckoned hacking was more efficient, cuts out the middle man.

"And you never showed me!"

Caleb shrugged.

"I wanna see it," Hanna said.

"I don't get why they would sing a song together if their relationship is supposed to be secret," Paige said.

"He was filling in for me," Caleb explained, silencing the buzz of the guitar strings. "I was sick, I think I got food poisoning from the cafeteria food."

"It was not pretty," Hanna recalled. Caleb shook his head agreeing.

"Oh, right, Emily was all confused when he walked out, but she never explained it. And they sang really well together.. I could tell _something_ was going on, but I didn't know what," Paige said, thinking back. "I can't believe they're having a baby."

"Me neither," Hanna agreed. Hanna had known for weeks and still couldn't get over it, or the fact the clues were all there right in front of her and she hadn't put it together. They had gone to the park one to day to watch Mike's lacrosse game since neither of Aria's parents could make it. The woman on the bleachers next to them, a mom of one of the kids on the team, had a baby in a stroller, whom Aria spent the whole game making faces at. When the woman got up to get a drink, Aria offered to watch the baby, a little girl named Michaela. She picked her up and held her on her lap, adjusting her little sun hat and shaking the pink bunny doll at her which made her giggle. Hanna had said, "_You want one of those?_"  
Aria nodded, "_Mmhmm_."  
"_You're not afraid she might bite?_" Hanna asked.  
"_She's barely got any teeth! Come on, you know you want one too. Look at this face._" Hanna wouldn't admit it, but she thought the baby was adorable too. When the mom returned, she asked if Aria ever babysat and offered to pay double her going rate since she also had a 6-year-old at home.

"When I came out to my parents, there were some tears, some screaming. I can't even imagine what they would have done if I came home and announced I was pregnant with my English teacher's baby. My dad would flip a shit."

"I'm pretty sure hers did. I haven't gotten the whole story yet, but there were threats and talk of involving the police, I think. But there is nothing illegal about them being together."

"I heard from Sean who heard from Noel that he was having a thing with a student. I guess that's true then?" Ezra heard the sound of one of the bottles being slid across the table while he wondered how many people Noel had told.

"No. They didn't get together until after he quit. That was just a rumor."

_Thank you, Hanna. The fewer people who know, the better._

"Okay. It's not like I would've said anything. I kind of owe him one anyway. He stood up to my dad that time. I always wanted to say thanks, but I was too embarrassed…"

_That's alright. Aria thanked me enough for the both of you._

"I remember that! Your dad was really angry."

"Yeah. He's been much better since."

After a short silence, Paige asked, "So you think things will last with them? The odds are sort of stacked against them."

"Please," Hanna said. "Those two were made for each other. Most guys would have bailed by now, but not Ezra. He's a good guy. Do you see the way he looks at her? Like his world revolves around her. It's adorable. And kinda sickening."

Paige laughed. "Their kid is gonna be really cute."

"Oh I know! I'm gonna take her shopping _all_ the time. Her first words will be 'Dolce' and 'Gabbana' if I have anything to do with it."

Paige laughed again. "Her?"

Hanna said, "Aria swears up and down it's a girl. I'll be pretty bummed if it's not."

Paige smiled and said, "You think she's ready for this?"

"If anyone is ready for this, it's Aria - babysitter extraordinaire. I babysat for a neighbor kid once and I let my friend Alison tell him a scary story. His mom _never_ let me watch him again. They actually moved."

Paige broke down in laughter again and started sharing some babysitting adventures of her own.

Ezra was truly touched Hanna thought so highly of him. _Note to self: Don't let Hanna babysit._

* * *

Notinyourlifetimehoney: You were close with the shopping comment!


	64. Chapter 64

Episode 4 tonight already! It's going by so fast! Think we'll get any answers? About anything? Or just more questions? I don't even care cuz I love it!

* * *

"What smells so good?" Ezra asked as he entered the bright, sweet-smelling kitchen.

"Toby's birthday is Monday, so we're making cupcakes for an early celebration," Aria answered.

She playfully slapped his hand when he went to pick one up. "Don't think I've forgotten your birthday is coming up too. I've got a surprise planned," she told Ezra.

"Ooo, what is it?" Emily asked.

Aria whispered in Emily's ear while Ezra watched intently.

"That sounds like fun!"

"We don't have to do anything for my birthday," he said. "It's not a big deal." He was enjoying these few weeks when he was only 5 years older than her, rather than 6, even if the numbers were superficial.

"_You_ don't have any say in the matter."

"Oh don't I?" Ezra said with a raised eyebrow as Aria approached. She smeared vanilla icing on his cheek with her finger, then proceeded to lick it off. Emily averted her eyes and continued icing the cupcakes.

"_What_ is going on in here?" Hanna exclaimed, walking through the backdoor, followed by Caleb and Paige.

Ezra decided to give her a show, continuing to make out with his girlfriend, letting his hands wander downwards and give her ass a nice squeeze.

"Get a room, you guys," she said, rolling her eyes. Leaning over her shoulder towards Paige, she said, "See? Sickening."

Paige went over to help Emily, and Aria and Ezra finally broke apart. He pulled up a stool. Aria smacked his hand with the spatula when he went for another cupcake.

Hanna dipped a finger in the tub of icing then brought it up to her lips, but instead of tasting it, she swiped it across Emily's nose in a surprise attack. Emily gave her a very significant wide-eyed growl. Hanna did not proceed to lick it off, to Caleb's abject disappointment. Emily first wiped the icing off with the back of her hand, then Paige used a napkin to get the rest.

"How was the bike ride?" Paige asked, crumpling up the napkin and looking around for the trash.

"It was nice. We could go for one later if you want," Emily said. "Sorry to ditch you earlier."

She found it in a cabinet and said, "Don't be. I had fun with Hanna. We did our nails."

Paige held up her hand and Emily said, "Oo nice," as she held it inspecting the colors.

"I like the stripes," Ezra said from a few too many feet away. Aria gave him a funny look as Toby entered the room with Spencer by his side. Paige gave him a quick smile, thinking he was trying to be nice, having no clue he heard everything she said about him earlier.

"What's all this?" Toby asked.

Emily shot Spencer a look. "It's cupcakes… for your birthday. _Someone_ was supposed to keep you out of the house a little longer so we didn't spoil the surprise."

"I'm sorry.." Spencer grumbled. "The photo mat took like 5 minutes and there are only so many things to do in town."

"Excuses, excuses," Emily chided.

"You guys made me cupcakes?" Toby asked, moved by the sweet gesture. "You didn't have to do that."

"We wanted to," Emily said cheerfully. "Surprise."

"Thank you. I mean it," Toby said to Emily then exchanged a friendly smile with Aria. He was delighted things were finally back to normal.

"What were you doing at the photo mat?" Emily asked.

"Oh, Aria asked me to have some copies made of the sonogram photo," Spencer said, reaching into her bag and handing Aria an envelope across the island. Aria could have done it herself, but knew they would need an excuse to get Toby out of the house later.

Aria said, "Thanks," thumbing through the envelope, pleased to have the picture of her baby back in her possession.

"You had the ultrasound!" Emily exclaimed. "Can I see?"

Aria nodded and happily handed her one of the photos then went to stand by Ezra. "Aww," Emily said and passed the photo to Paige.

"Aww," she echoed and handed the photo to Hanna.

Examining it closely, the blonde said, "She looks… she kinda looks like… a frog."

"A frog!" cried Aria. "Filter Hanna!" Emily yelled at her. The look Caleb shot Hanna was indescribable. She didn't see it, but Emily did, and she was making the same face. Paige and Ezra stifled laughter while Spencer hung her head in shame. Toby caught all of it as he looked on in amusement.

"Yeah, sorry, guys. I think you're having a frog," Hanna deadpanned as she handed the photo off to Caleb, pretending to be oblivious to Emily's gaping. "I'm just kidding! She's adorable."

"That's okay," Aria forgave. "I think she looks like a peanut." Ezra had his arm around her waist and gave it a squeeze. _Our peanut.__  
_

The photo was passed around until it reached Aria again. They boys' reactions were slightly less enthusiastic than the girls' and Ezra understood why. The grainy white smudge wouldn't mean anything to him either had he not been involved in creating it. Aria hung the glossy rectangle on the stainless fridge with a magnet shaped like a sailboat. While her back was turned, Ezra tried to sneak another cupcake.

"Those are for later!" She moved the tray out of his reach. "Here, if you're hungry, I brought you some frozen yogurt," she said, pulling a small container out of the freezer, "It got a little… melty on the trip home," setting it down in front of him. Ezra picked up the spoon and the whole container came with it. It was frozen solid, toppings and all.

"How… thoughtful…" he said, holding it upside down like a popsicle. An m+m fell onto the counter, followed a gummy bear. Caleb took note.

"Oh, for pete's sake, Ezra, have a cupcake," Emily proclaimed and handed him one.

He set the paper cup down and took it from her. "Thank you, Emily."

Aria looked at him apologetically.

Ezra broke the cupcake in half and handed her a piece. She smiled, remembering once again why she loved him so much.

* * *

It's funny how tough it is to predict which chapters you guys will respond so well to. I love the last chapter too, but I love every chapter, haha, and the ones I love the most, are not the ones I get the most comments on. Anyway, to my lovely commenters (and potential commenters as well), if you love something, tell me what it is so I can try to have more of it in future chapters. And thank you again, as always!

Out of curiosity, did anyone guess they were painting their nails before I said so?


	65. Chapter 65

[Poem is not my own. I take no credit whatsoever. The lyrics come from Andrew Belle's song In My Veins. Link in my profile if you care. ]

* * *

Later, they all met up outside for a game of beach volleyball. Nets were set up on the public beach next door for whoever felt like using them. Aria sat under an umbrella nearby, wanting to stay out of the sun and feeling inspired to write. She flipped through her notebook, the one with the hard purple cover and spiral binding, and noticed some poems she had written and doodles she had made about a year and half ago. The emotions came flooding back.

After the first round, Toby took off his shirt and wiped the sweat from his face. Ezra leaned over to Caleb, both of whom were wearing swim trunks and t-shirts, and said, "Remind me to not take my shirt off when Toby's around."

"Ha I know. He's making us look bad," Caleb agreed. He glanced around, then tapped Ezra's arm with the back of his hand to catch his attention and said, "I'm gonna sit this one out."

Caleb jogged up the sand to where Aria was sitting, wearing red denim shorts and a loose white-on-white patterned tank over a black bikini.

"Giving up?" she asked as he sat in the low chair next to her.

"Volleyball's not really my thing." They watched Spencer, wearing an off-the-shoulder tee tied in a knot at her waist and capris, serve the ball hard at Emily who raised her arms just in time to hit the ball back over the net. Toby dove for it, launching it over the net once again.

"Me neither," Aria agreed. "It's my least favorite sport in PE." Every sport was her least favorite sport in PE.

"What are you writing?" Caleb inquired. "If you don't mind me asking…"

"I dunno. Nothing really. I guess it's sort of a poem," she said.

"Can I see?"

Aria handed him the notebook and dug her toes, painted a glossy cherry red, into the sand while he read it. She wasn't used to showing people her work, then again, most people weren't interested.

.

_Nothing goes as planned.  
__Everything will break.  
__People say goodbye  
__In their own special way.  
__All that you rely on  
__And all that you can fake  
__Will leave you in the morning  
__But find you in the day._

_Oh you're in my veins  
__And I cannot get you out  
__Oh you're all I taste  
__At night inside of my mouth_

.

"That's what I have so far," Aria said as his eyes moved down the page.

"This is kind of… dark. Is it about anyone in particular?"

"Sort of, but it all sort of flowed out, so it's not all… true, does that make sense?"

Caleb nodded and studied her face. Then he glanced over at the gang still playing on the sand, just in time to see Hanna, wearing a barely-there neon coral bikini top and board shorts, get bopped in the head with the ball because she had bent down to pick up a seashell instead of paying attention. Ezra ducked under the net to make sure she was alright since he was the one who had served the offending ball.

"I guess," he said, brushing his hair out of his face, "but you guys seem really happy, and this is like-"

"No, not Ezra!" she exclaimed. "It was just in my head, I wanted to write it down."

"Well, it's really good," Caleb said, relaxing a bit. He decided not to pry, having already overstepped his bounds. Caleb had been hoping Aria would come to him to follow up on his idea to write a song, but she never did. He figured she hadn't taken him seriously when he'd suggested it, perhaps due his mildly intoxicated state, and knew he'd have to follow up himself if he wanted it to happen. Caleb had always wanted to write a real song, but felt ill-equipped on his own and had no other prospects for writing partners. Hanna's best attempt at writing song lyrics sounded suspiciously like a dirty limerick. "Can you imagine setting it to music? I think it could work." He handed her back the notebook.

"Well, ever since you mentioned writing a song, I've been trying to make my poems more like lyrics," Aria said.

So she had taken him seriously, he thought. "You don't have to change anything. I think it works the way it is. I was working on this song earlier, maybe we could adapt the tune…" He trailed off thinking about how to go about it.

"Alright," she agreed. "You really want to?"

"Yeah. Depending what else you write, I'm seeing it as a fucked up love song."

She looked down at the words. "I can see how you could see that..." It wasn't quite what she was going for, but understood how he would interpret it that way and already had an idea how to continue.

"I think it could sound really good."

They continued to discuss how to combine her lyrics with his music and decided to take a serious stab at writing a song together. He brought out his guitar and they started right there on the sand.

.

Before they all took to the ocean, a few of them with boogie boards rented from a shed behind the restaurant, a bunch of group photos were taken. They took turns breaking into smaller groups and pairs so someone could always snap the photo, and asked a passerby to get a few with all 8 of them. It was a weekend they never wanted to forget.

* * *

[It's time for another shout out! Thank you to Notinyourlifetimehoney, Maddiebieber101 aka maddie, TotalCowGirl, hiding .my .heart, HarrylovesGinny09, KatyForYou, jills, aston-merygold-is-awesome, anon, and SolitudeMyLove for reading and leaving reviews! I am SOO happy you guys are enjoying the story and appreciate every bit of feedback you leave.  
In response to anon, there's one more scene from this weekend where Ezra interacts with Aria and her friends, the one with Emily I mentioned a while back. It should be going up Friday. Apologies if the story feels dragged out a bit. I sorta felt the need to chronicle every minute (practically) of this beach weekend cuz this is when Ezra gets to know her friends. And also I'm leaving you in limbo about what's gonna happen when they go home. Please don't hold it against me! :)  
To maddie: Yeah, I was totally bummed by the lack of Ezra in this ep. And then we have to wait 2 whole weeks for the next one? In the words of drunk Hanna in the next chapter, "that is like, not fair you guys." ;) ]


	66. Chapter 66

Hope this chapter makes any Haleb shippers out there happy, especially after how episode 4 ended booooooo!

* * *

That night they ordered pizza and sat under the stars around the glass table on the patio surrounded by paper lanterns lining the fence. Spencer's laptop provided the music, a playlist which everyone had added a few songs to. Aria and Ezra got up to slow dance to a song they particularly liked, "Collide" by Howie Day, which Emily had added. The couple realized they had never danced together before and felt the need to remedy the situation right away. Her friends _ooo_ed and _ahhh_ed, but they didn't care.

The cupcakes were brought out with candles and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Toby. A year ago, Toby never would have imagined spending his birthday with the 4 girls who used to loathe him, and never in his wildest dreams would he ever have guessed he'd be in love with one of them, Spencer Hastings, of all people, or have made a lifelong friend in Emily Fields, the girl next door.

At one point, a tipsy Hanna blurted, "You should name the baby Ezria. It's like your name," she pointed at the aforementioned couple, "and your name put together." She was practically sitting on Caleb's lap in a wide cushioned chair at the head of the table.

"Ezria?" Spencer asked, sitting to her left, holding a strawberry daiquiri in her hand, which Hanna had whipped up. "That's a little strange for a name, don't you think? Nobody names their kid Bennifer." _God, I hope not,_ she thought after she said it.

"But it's so cute," Hanna elucidated her point. "Like me and Caleb here. Put our names together and it's Haleb."

"You want to name our kid Haleb?" Caleb asked in disbelief, setting his beer down on the table. Ezra had purchased half a case of beer at the liquor store in case the boys weren't interested in Hanna's fruity concoction. It hadn't been necessary to break out the extra bottle of rum.

"I'm not pregnant, silly." She squeezed his face, then playfully slapped his cheek twice as she said, "No, no, I am not," and continued, "But if you and me walked down the street, people could say 'there goes Haleb!'"

Paige joined in. "So Emily and I would be… Emil-, Emipa-, Pag-"

"Pemily!" Emily shouted from her seat perpendicular to Caleb. "And Spencer and Toby are Spenby," she stated and picked up her buzzing phone.

"Or Spoby," Spencer said, directly across from Emily, eyeing her. Emily held the screen up displaying a text and mouthed "my mom" at Spencer.

"Spoby sounds like a disease," Hanna shot down, sucking down the last drop of slush in her glass with a noisy slurp through a loopy straw.

"So does Ezria," Spencer retorted.

"No, no. It's bee-yoou-tee-ful," Hanna insisted. "Ezzzzriaa." As she said this, she waved her hand out above her like she was making a rainbow and clocked Caleb in the forehead with an elbow.

As he pulled her closer and restrained her arms to her sides, Aria spoke up from the bench down the end, "Sorry, Hann, we've already picked a name."

"What is it!" Hanna demanded.

"It's a secret," Aria said. Ezra had his arm around her and nodded in agreement at Hanna.

"Noo, tell me! Whisper it right here." She wriggled free of Caleb's grasp and pointed to her ear.

"Nope. It's a secret. You'll find out in 6 months or so, along with everyone else." Aria set down her half-empty glass. She had been drinking a virgin daiquiri, which she had Ezra taste test for her, just in case, without explaining Hanna's track record in this area.

"That is, like, not fair guys." Hanna crossed her arms and pouted. "I think you should pick Ezria."

The conversation continued to devolve.

Speaking only to Aria, Ezra said, "What Hanna said.., that's either a terrible idea, or a great idea."

"Do you think so?" she asked, turning to read the level of conviction on his face inches away from her own. "She doesn't have a middle name…"

.

Later, Aria was returning from the bathroom and found Spencer in the kitchen getting ice for her glass. Of water. Unlike Hanna, Spencer wasn't getting sloshed tonight.

"Hey, Spence. I haven't had a chance to talk to you." Aria met her in front of the fridge.

"Talk to me about what?" she asked, taking a sip.

Aria checked around the room to make sure they were alone. Everyone was still outside. "I ran into Wren at the hospital the other day. He asked about you."

"What did he say?" Spencer had stopped taking his phone calls a few weeks after the incident at his apartment. She hadn't seen him since.

"He asked me to tell you hello, and that he's sorry for being immature."

"Immature," she repeated. "Right."

"What did he do?" Aria asked, having been curious ever since he had said it. "I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"Well…" Spencer started. "I had a pregnancy scare…"

"Oh, really?"

"Uh huh. It was stupid. I was late and I was f-reaking out." It sounded familiar to Aria. "I had to tell him right away, I didn't know what to do."

Aria nodded along, listening.

"I went over to his place and waited around like an idiot. Finally, he shows, and I blurt it out. He seemed very… irritated by the idea." Spencer set her glass down on the counter. "His exact words, which I'll never forget, were 'I can't be the guy who knocked up his ex-fiancée's teenaged sister.'"

"I'm sorry, Spence," Aria said, scratching her arm, speculating how she would have handled it if Ezra had said anything remotely like that to her. "So what happened?"

"I left. I took a test. It was negative. I took 3 more over the next few weeks just in case. The next month, everything was back to normal. It was just some freak thing. But by that time, I had already realized, Wren was not the guy for me. He tried to apologize, but I couldn't get it out of my head how if it were Toby, he'd never do that. He'd never worry about what people think of him before thinking of me first."

Spencer looked at her boyfriend outside though the open sliding glass door, laughing, using his hands to describe some joke. "I never should have let him go." She turned back to Aria and said, "But I think I just needed to get Wren out of my system. There was always something unfinished between us and now.. it's finished. And I think Toby had to get that other girl out of his system, so now we can be together knowing there's no one else." They'd hadn't discussed it since they'd gotten back together, but that was the impression Spencer got, and was okay with it.

"You're probably right," Aria agreed and Spencer looked outside again. Hanna just finished pouring herself another drink and began filling Emily's, and then Paige's glasses, at first being met with protestations, and then consenting shrugs, an obligatory toast and 3 simultaneous sips. "But why didn't you tell us?"

Spencer turned back to look at her friend. "Why didn't _you_ tell us!"

"That's fair," Aria conceded, having no good excuse.

"So how did Ezra react? When you told him?" Spencer assumed he took it well based on the ring Aria was rotating around her finger and his presence this evening.

"I could tell he was stunned. I wish I could describe the look on his face. Beyond stunned. In a good way. Dumbstruck maybe?" _Maeby._ "It was priceless in any case," Aria said, adding, "And he said all the right things." All_ the right things._

"Aw."

"He still beats himself up about it sometimes though. If we had been more careful, if we this, if we that, but the truth is, we couldn't have been more careful. It could have happened to anybody."

"I'm glad it was you and not me," Spencer said, then covered her mouth like she never meant to say it out loud. "I'm sorry, Aria, I didn't mean that."

Taking no offense, Aria said, "I'm glad it was me too."

* * *

Link to Collide by Howie Day in my profile.


	67. Chapter 67

I don't know where I come up with this stuff. My brain is a scary place.

* * *

(Part 1 of 2)

Later, feeling a bit selfish seeing as no one else had access, Aria, on behalf of Ezra and herself, invited Paige and Emily to join them in the jacuzzi on the patio outside the master suite. Everyone else had gone to "bed," including Caleb and Hanna, it should be noted, the inevitable destination after she'd been tormenting him all day, whispering in his ear, conjuring devilishly erotic images, and mouthing dirty phrases at him when no one else was looking. Ezra wasn't sure the girls would accept, wondering if it would make Paige uncomfortable, but both girls were up for it, their inhibitions slightly lowered by the beverages they had consumed earlier. They kept the temperature low, knowing too high a temperature could hurt the baby. It was a warm night anyway and nobody minded.

Over the low gurgling sound of the water, Emily pointed out, "Aw, you've got a scratch," when Aria shifted from Ezra's right side to his left. Emily's suit was a stripy blue one-piece with cutouts along the sides while Aria wore a black string bikini, not at all insecure about her figure.

She looked over her shoulder and saw the red mark just above her shoulder blade. "Oh, one of the beach chairs I sat in yesterday was broken," she lied, without even taking the time to blink first. "It doesn't hurt." Aria suspected the small wound came from their tryst under the cliff. It was hardly the worst injury she'd ever incurred as a result of their more wild encounters. It really didn't hurt, and even if it did, she'd consider it well worth it.

Ezra ran his fingers over it lightly and frowned, then rubbed her shoulder. She rolled her eyes at him, then settled against him.

"I like the drinks Hanna made," Paige said. She wore a green halter bikini with a white honeycomb design. "Last time I had anything like it was this Halloween party a few years ago. I went as a mad scientist."

"Did you make your costume?" Emily asked.

"Yeah if you could call it a costume. I sort of spiked my hair and wore a tattered white coat. Carried around a beaker. It was kinda lame."

"Like this?" Emily asked, lifting Paige's auburn hair up at the temples.

She laughed, pulling on Emily's wrist. "It was shorter." Paige used to keep her hair short, but had grown it out and now had waves and side bangs. Like the rest of the girls, her hair was frizzy from the salt water and humidity, except Emily, whose hair always looked like it belonged in a shampoo commercial, even fresh out of bed in the morning or after spending half the day in the ocean. "Hanna was talking about Halloween earlier, she said she went as Britney Spears one year."

"Yeah, old-school Britney with the pigtails. I went as an Indian girl that year," Emily said. She still thought she had the hottest costume of all of them.

"What'd you go as?" Ezra asked Aria.

"A witch. Who was Spencer again?" she asked Emily.

"Some queen..."

"Oh yeah, _Mary Queen of Scots_," Aria remembered, using an accent. "Spencer is ridiculous. She sewed it herself so it would be _authentic_."

"Sounds impressive," Ezra said. Paige nodded.

"That's one word for it," Emily said. "Ali went as Lady Gaga that year. The five of us shoulda had a costume theme, like the Spice Girls or something." Aria shrugged and nodded ambivalently. _Ali's last Halloween,_ she thought. _At least it was memorable. _"We could do it this year. We could all go as cheerleaders." None of the girls had ever done the cheerleading thing. Emily and Spencer were jocks, Hanna did not consider fitness and exercise to be fun, Aria wouldn't be caught dead wearing a uniform with such social implications, and Ali didn't need to be a cheerleader to be popular, her mere presence commanded attention from everyone around.

"We could all go as pregnant cheerleaders!" Aria suggested animatedly, loving the idea she had just come up with.

"Let's do it!" Emily agreed enthusiastically. Ezra knew it was wrong, but found it hilarious. "What about you, Ezra. Do you do Halloween?" Emily asked. "You could be the coach."

He shook his head, ignoring her last highly entertaining, yet oh-so-inappropriate comment. "I used to. Last year, no, senior year, no, junior year we did a party crawl, like a pub crawl to all the parties around town. I was so drunk by the end of the night, I can't even remember where we went." Ezra vaguely remembered seeing multiple Lady Gagas at one of the parties he stumbled through. Either it was a popular costume that year, or he was seeing double, or triple. It was all a haze.

"Were you a big party boy?" Aria asked, intrigued by the thought.

"Not big, but, you know, there were always parties." Ezra was a good student, but also knew how to have fun.

"What'd you go as?" she asked.

"I didn't have a costume, so Hardy rustled one up for me, raiding the closet of the goth guy across the hall, and he got these wings... from god knows where, I still don't know."

"Wings? What were you, a butterfly?" They all laughed at the image.

"No, a _dark angel_, or at least that's what Hardy called it. He got this girl down the hall to do my makeup, it was not pretty. I think I looked more like a zombie than an angel with blood running down my face and bruises under my eyes." His jerk of a best friend went as a scarecrow, which basically consisted of a pair of overalls and a straw hat. There was no face paint involved.

"_Please_ tell me there are photos. I _have_ to see pictures," Aria begged, playfully pounding her fists against his chest. Emily would enjoy seeing those photos as well.

"Not that I know of, and I plan to keep it that way. I will destroy all photo evidence should any turn up," Ezra promised.

Aria sulked.

"Aria used to be goth," Emily informed the group.

"How goth?" Ezra asked. He did not know this. Aria was prone to dressing in dark colors and wearing a lot of makeup, but he'd never classify her as goth. Maybe a bi-monthly goth since her style changed daily.

"Like medium," Emily estimated. "She had streaks in her hair and wore black every day. That witch costume - pieced together from her closet. She basically went as herself."

"I worked hard on that costume," Aria said, offended. Ezra brushed his fingers through her hair thinking Emily's description wasn't so far off from how she dressed now, and his fingers caught in a knot.

"Did you guys dress up last year?" Paige asked. She knew better than to ask about the year before knowing neither of them probably felt much like celebrating since Alison had disappeared less than 2 months prior. Also, she had forgotten Aria had been overseas that year, in a country where Halloween was not widely celebrated.

"Yeah, we went to a party. It was boring." It was a gloriously boring A-free night. "I went as a pirate," Emily said. Aria was facing away from Ezra because he was busy parting strands of Aria's hair trying to work out the knot he created. Emily wondered if he was gonna try to start braiding it, wishing she had a camera handy.

"What were you?" Ezra asked Aria without really thinking about it. He was still a teensy bit drunk and fascinated by her wavy locks.

"I went as a fairy, like a wicked Tinkerbell," she said, removing his hands from her hair and settling back in beside him, turning her head toward him so she could see him as she spoke. "Wait, didn't I show you my costume?" She remembered it vividly. "Like 3 weeks after the fact, but-" Aria stopped talking because after Ezra started to nod, he then began shaking his head, reminding her Paige was in the hot tub with them.

"Yeah, you saw a picture," Aria recovered from her slip, "it was of the 4 of us, it fell out of my notebook and you gave it back to me before I even noticed I dropped it." This never happened. Aria had shown up to his place wearing the costume, sans wings, under her coat as a surprise weeks after Halloween. Ezra especially liked the fishnets, corset, tutu, and black stiletto boots. No, what he _especially_ liked was removing them, piece by piece.

Since the incident she described was so insignificant, he said, "I don't remember," forever amazed at how the lies spilled so readily from her lips. He fleetingly wondered if she ever did it to him, but they didn't lie to each other, so he didn't worry about it.

Paige didn't seem to pick up on anything. Aria continued, "Spencer went as a Greek goddess and Hanna went as Britney again, this time Oops, I Did It Again Britney, in that latex catsuit, do you remember?" she said to Emily. "She said she was 'sweating in bad places,'" Aria laughed and the others joined in. "We spent the night fanning her and bringing her drinks."

"But we couldn't find any ice and she's like, 'you're not helping guys!'" imitating Hanna's whining, "and we're like, why would you ever pick a costume like that?" Emily recalled. "Where did she even get it?"

"I think she ordered it from some online sex shop. She yelled at me too, for only bringing her lukewarm tapwater. Isn't that always the problem? The host is hiding the drinks? Didn't we spend the first half of that other Halloween party lost in the woods looking for the keg?" No need to mention it was Noel Kahn's party or what they spent the second half doing.

"Maybe you did. I found it pretty easy," Emily gloated.


	68. Chapter 68

(Part 2 of 2)

"Sometime after the baby is born, we're gonna get so drunk together," Aria told Ezra, jealous she hadn't seen him during his partying days. He nodded and smiled. Emily and Paige giggled and Aria explained, "We weren't together long enough to do that," to Paige. "Well, once," she added, turning back to Ezra, "but we didn't get that drunk." He nodded in acknowledgement.

"I'll watch her for you, if you want," Emily offered, "assuming I'm not invited."

Aria gave her a 'we'll see' shrug.

"Do you like kids?" Ezra asked her.

Emily shrugged, "Yeah," ambivalently. "I watch the kids at Sunday school sometimes."

Ezra nodded, noting Emily seemed to be a more qualified babysitter than Hanna.

"My mom could help," Emily continued, in case her credentials weren't up to snuff. "She'd love it. She melts around babies. I think she always wanted more kids after me, but it never happened." Aria found it hard to imagine Pam Fields watching the baby she had had with Emily's (and her own) former English teacher one night for the sole purpose of them being able to go out and get drunk. She'd believe it when she saw it.

"I remember your mom from parent-teacher conferences," Ezra said. "She was nice. And I remember your dad," he said to Paige. "He was.. a bit of a handful."

She laughed. "That's a nice way of putting it."

"How is he these days?"

"A lot better, thanks. A lot more, accepting of reality now."

"Glad to hear it," Ezra said. He couldn't imagine having a parent like that, who would use their child to further their own political agenda and embarrass them in front of their peers. His own dad wasn't gonna win any father-of-the-year awards, but would never have done what Paige's dad did. Ezra really was glad everything had worked out for Paige.

"So what do you miss most since you went and got preggo," Emily asked Aria, wondering if all this talk of boozing it up made Aria feel left out.

Ezra giggled to himself. "Preggo? That's a new one."

"Why are you laughing?" Aria said, giggling herself at Ezra's cute response. Surely it wasn't the first time he'd heard someone say that, she thought.

It was. "'Preggo.' It's sounds like.. l'eggo my eggo," he said, still laughing.

They all found this hilarious and forgot a question had been asked until Aria said, "I don't know, probably making it through an entire movie without crying, whether it's sad or not."

"Oh right," Ezra said, thinking she would have said caffeine. He told the girls, "We watched Shrek on TV once and she started crying in the middle. I didn't know if I should turn it off, or what." _The middle part was really sad, _Aria thought.

"I'll do you one better," Emily said, sitting up straighter. "We watched _The Hangover_ and she was crying and not like, laughing so hard, she was _crying_, like, legit _bawling_ by the end. I thought it was so friggin' _weird_." Aria had no explanation on the ready for that one, so she had remained silent, letting her friends make fun of her until they found something new to talk about.

"You cried during The Hangover?" he said with both pity and amusement in his voice, like it was the most adorable thing he'd ever heard.

"I'm growing a person, remember?" she said so only he could hear. "I'm allowed."

"That's right," he agreed, equally quietly, and kissed her lips once.

Paige and Emily talked amongst themselves while Ezra played with Aria's left hand, intertwining their fingers and twisting them around in his hand and repeating. "I like your nails," he said. They were trimmed short and each nail was painted a different color, some with sparkles, some with polka dots and some with stripes.

"Since when do you care about nail polish?" Aria asked, giving him that same funny look as earlier.

"I just think it's funny how you girls spend all this time painting these tiny intricate designs on your fingernails, then wipe it off 2 days later and start all over." He clearly still had a little buzz going.

"It's called self-expression," Aria said.

"I know. It was a compliment, in case you missed it," Ezra shot back, still holding her hand up, running his thumb nail over the indentations in the gold band on her ring finger, then letting their hands drop under the surface of the bubbling water.

"It's just a weird compliment coming from you. I'd expect Emily to tell me 'I like your nails.' I'd expect _you_ to tell me 'I like your ass.' On their first date in Philadelphia, Ezra had told her "_your ass looks amazing in that dress_" presuming correctly that she would enjoy the compliment.

"I like your ass," he said, with a raised eyebrow. _It's delightfully squeezable, _he thought.

They both turned to look at Emily when she spoke up. "Don't I tell you I like your ass all the time?" Emily said, completely joking. Ezra didn't realize the other girls were listening to their conversation even though they were only a few feet away.

They all laughed, especially Aria, who confirmed, "Every day. It's a real boost to my self-esteem."

After some small talk which could almost qualify as normal, and more laughter, alternated with stretches of silence, Paige said, "Imagine if someone saw a picture of us here like this, what would they think?"

"Don't even joke," Emily said, thinking something like that was bound to happen.

"You've got to admit, it looks pretty strange," Paige continued.

"I guess it depends who saw the picture," Aria speculated.

"Yeah. I'm sure certain people would not be pleased…" Ezra began.

"Like my dad," Paige said.

"Or mine," Aria added.

"Or mine," said Emily.

Ezra continued, "But other people might get a kick out of it."

"What are you thinking?" Aria asked suspiciously.

Ezra reached over the edge to find his phone sitting atop a towel left against the glass, saying, "I would love to send my friend Hardy a picture of the 4 of us in a hot tub like this, and I'd kill to see the look on his face when he sees it."

Paige and Emily looked at each other, unsure.

"It's okay. Hardy is cool," Aria assured.

"Okay…" "Why not?" they agreed.

Emily scooted close to Aria who was already close to Ezra, and Paige slid right up to Emily. Ezra wrapped one arm around them, while holding the phone out as far as he could with the other. The girls made sexy faces while Ezra donned a big smile. They all broke down laughing after he snapped the photo and sent it off.

Moments later, an incoming text read:

.

Hardy: Dude…. Where ARE you? ! !

Ezra: Paradise.

* * *

[To maddie: FYI, your comment about forgetting Aria is "preggo" inspired the part where Ezra laughs at Emily's use of the word haha. I never would have thought of that had you not said it. So thanks!

Also, to Notinyourlifetimehoney, later on, I include something you said in one of your comments too. :)

BTW, "l'eggo my eggo" is the catchphrase from the advertisements for Kellogg's Eggo waffles in case you don't know/remember. ]

* * *

This one was on the short side, ish, but the next one is... not. Prepare yourselves. I'll give you a tiny sneak peek:

"In that case… take off your pants."

Guess who says it.

0;^p


	69. Chapter 69

Shortly afterwards, Paige and Emily decided to call it a night. Aria slid into the now empty seat across from Ezra.

"That should make up for yesterday, then?" Aria asked, referring to the first photo sent to Hardy from Ezra's phone.

"It better," he said with his arms stretched out along the edge of the tub. Getting 3 hot scantily-clad young women into a jacuzzi better earn him some cred with his best friend, he thought.

"So. If I remember correctly, there's something I have to make up to you," she said, referring to their being interrupted in bed this morning, as her toe grazed the top of his foot.

"You remember correctly." He nodded his head once as he said this.

"In that case… take off your pants."

He laughed.

"I'm serious. Take off your pants," Aria repeated, "or I'll do it for you." She wasn't playing.

Ezra arched one eyebrow, considering if he should take her up on her offer, then did as she said. Aria knelt down in front of him and stroked him, then disappeared under the water and took the tip of his growing erection in her mouth, exhaling bubbles all around, producing an unearthly sensation. Ezra was too busy catching up with what he had to convince himself was actually happening to be at all concerned about her safety, as he would have been under less mind-blowingly unexpected circumstances. Emerging a few seconds later, Aria skillfully began using her hand again.

She brought herself up to his level, kneeling beside him, never breaking contact, and put her face up to his, letting her wet hair drip on his shoulder.

"Let's go inside," he muttered, breathlessly.

"Are you sure?" she said, flirtatiously.

Ezra grabbed her wrist beneath the water. "Yes!" The twosome jumped out of the tub and he chased her inside leaving a trail of water in their wake. Aria screamed when he caught her and tackled her face down on the bed. She rolled over underneath him and scooted backward, all smiles. His fingers eagerly hooked the loops at the sides of the bikini bottoms she wore and yanked them down. Then he kissed her deeply, positioned himself above her, and entered her, unable to wait any longer. She adjusted herself to him, wrapping one leg around him and inhaling his scent. _Finally_, she thought. This perfection of this moment had been rolling around in the back of her mind all day.

Aria moaned when he began thrusting, wrapping her arms up under his, her fingers sinking deep into the back of his neck, molding herself to his toned and steady body. One hand felt its way under her back and untied her bikini top while he sucked on the spot just behind her ear that she liked.

Her breathing became labored as he thrust deeper and deeper. "I love you," Ezra whispered in her ear, not a reminder, or a promise. He said it simply because it was true. Aria wrapped her other leg tightly around his waist, needing to feel him even deeper inside. Overcome with passion, they rocked together vigorously at the foot of the bed and through her panting, she murmured, "Ezra…" He reached down with his left hand and pinched her clitoris, causing her nails to dig into his back and a frenzied "Ezra!" to escape her lips. He moved up and down faster, rolling the small mass between his fingertips, sliding in with force, hitting precisely the right spot again and again as she sank further and further into the downy bedding beneath them, and into oblivion. "Ez-zzrra-a-a-aaa," she called the first time she peaked, seeing a blinding white light behind her eyes and yanking a few strands of hair from his scalp. Hearing her voice choke out his name drove him crazy and rallied his determination to make it happen again, so he held out, plunging into her repeatedly, and pressing his thumb down on the supersensitive spot until she cried out in ecstasy again, the sound of which pushed him over the edge, despite it not being his name. Engulfed in the rush, he felt her walls contract and they shook violently as an incredible wave of pleasure surged through them both.

He rested on one elbow to keep from collapsing on top of her. Both struggled to regain their breath, filling their lungs with the vital oxygen they'd been deprived of. Aria reluctantly unwrapped her legs and Ezra rolled onto his back, then tumbled to the floor with a loud thud.

Aria, torn from the enjoyable post-orgasm haze, shot up and yelled, "Oh my god are you okay!" then collapsed in a fit of giggles at the sight of him on the floor. He tried to act all indignant at the sound of her laughter, but couldn't help seeing the humor in the situation as well.

"I-I- th-thought we were f-further up!" he tried to explain

"Shhhh- sh- sh- sh- shshshs," she said through stifled laughs, gesturing with her hands to quiet down. "Someone will hear us!"

"I hate to break it to you, dear," he said as he stood, "they probably heard us already."

"Noo, I don't think so. Not until you went and threw yourself off the bed, shook the whole house," Aria described the incident with her hands.

"You don't think we were making just a little bit of noise before that?" He sat beside her on the bed, so large, he had no excuse for falling off it.

"No, not that much!"

"Aria Montgomery, you need to face the truth.." he stated. "I can make you scream."

She shook her head stubbornly.

He took it as a challenge. "Not just face it," he said and widened his eyes. "_Embrace_ it." Ezra launched himself at her and began tickling her mercilessly.

"Stop!" she cried. "E- Ezra!" Her hands flew up in defense and attacked his chest uselessly.

He didn't let up though. Aria attempted to use her feet to push him off. It didn't work. Her teeth clattered together as his fingers worked their way down from under her arms to the most ticklish place on her body just above her hips.

"St-ssssst- Stop!" she finally squealed loudly through laughter.

"See?" he said, immediately dropping his hands.

"Fine," she told him grudgingly, and hopped off the left side of the bed.

"Oh don't be mad."

"I'm not mad," Aria said dismissively. "Look at this place," she said, throwing her hands up. "The carpet is soaked. I think we ruined that comforter." She gestured to each. "Spencer's never gonna let us come back here." Aria shook her head with shame.

"I think she will."

"I'm gonna turn off the jacuzzi so it's not running all night." He watched her exit and followed her with his eyes through the glass. Aria flipped the switches on the control panel, ceasing the bubbling action and turning off the light. She fished his swim trunks out of the water and laid them across the back of a chair to hopefully dry by morning. Then she picked a towel up off the table and threw it down on the carpet inside, sliding the glass door shut behind her. She traipsed over it, scrunching it with her feet to absorb the water, then drew open the top drawer of the dresser and pulled out a pair of shorts and one of Ezra's t-shirts. His eyes watched her at every step.

When she flipped the t-shirt over looking for the hem, he said, "Wait."

Aria looked up at him.

"Come here. I want to look at you," he said plainly.

A blush rose to her cheeks as she stepped forward to meet him at the edge of the bed. He took her hands in his and swung them to her sides, taking in every inch of her perfect body. Through the relative darkness, he could see there was no baby bump yet, but the contour of her stomach wasn't quite as flat as it was a few months ago, and her breasts were larger. He loved her relatively small stature, thinking the best things really do come in small packages.

"Ezra…" Aria said, feeling self-conscious. She hadn't felt that way since the first time she'd let him see her this way. She'd actually been incredibly nervous in that moment, but hid it well. Then all sign of nerves disappeared when he touched her and she realized sleeping with a person you love was not something to be afraid of; it was something to embrace, and superior to anything else.

"Sorry," he said, shaking his head, averting his gaze from her navel, lifting his head to see her face. "I just can't believe how beautiful you are sometimes."

The self-consciousness vanished as Aria saw an opportunity to put her plan into motion. "Sometimes?"

He laughed and corrected himself. "Sometimes I just can't believe how beautiful you are."

Aria lifted one hand and pushed him backwards, then got onto the bed with her knees on either side of him and sat herself down on his stomach.

"Sometimes… I can't believe…" she began, her hands reaching behind her own body to his hips. "…how easy you are!" and immediately started tickling him on his sides. His face contorted and he burst into uncontrollable laughter, momentarily powerless. "This is called payback."

Ezra lifted his hands and grabbed hers, pinning them to her hips then he flipped her onto her back. He kissed her hard and she returned the kiss with equal force. Their tongues fought for dominance, neither gaining the upper hand for more than a few seconds. Her hands were free now and she used them to press his face onto hers. He didn't let this go on very long. His right hand crept up and pinned her wrists above her head while the other ran down the length of her body.

He inserted a finger and began moving the tip in a rhythmic motion. She squirmed and bucked her hips in response underneath him.

"Ooooohhh." The sound escaped her throat. "Oooooooohhhhhh." He caught the moan in his mouth.

He slid a second finger in and continued to stroke her g-spot.

"Oooohh my-" she groaned, sucking in breath. She struggled to move her arms, but he kept them pinned down tight. As his fingers persisted, dipping into her further and further, the tips curling continuously with a steady pressure, his body, moving on top of her and holding her down, matched the rhythm.

"Ooooh my god!" she wailed, and bit her lip to prevent herself from screaming again. It didn't work.

"Don't! Stop!" she yelled. As much as he enjoyed watching her, there was something else he wanted to do more. He buried his face in her chest and pressed his ear down to hear her heartbeat. It was racing.

Taking shallow breaths between each word, she cried, "Don't! Stop! Don't! Stop!" And he didn't. He kneaded the heel of his hand down and with urgency stroked and massaged the spot which was causing her lose her mind until he felt her walls contract and her body writhe in heated pleasure when she couldn't take one more agonizing second. Her chest rose and fell quickly under him and her heart beat so fast he thought it might burst out of her chest.

"What was that about payback?" Ezra asked, loosening his grip. They made eye contact as Ezra put his wet fingers to his mouth, then, changing his mind, touched them to her lips and pushed them inside. She didn't look away while she sucked on them eagerly, causing him to partially lose his own mind.

Breathlessly, Aria sat up and flipped him willingly onto his back. On her knees, she walked backwards down the bed and sat herself down in between his legs. She lowered her mouth to him and delicately licked the tip of his erection, looking up at him through her eyelashes. He threw his head back onto the pillow. She licked it from bottom to top.

"Aria," he whimpered with his eyes closed.

"Now who's torturing whom?" She licked him again.

"Aria!" he barked at her in frustration.

She crawled up to his face and kissed him deeply, holding his bottom lip between her teeth as she pulled away. With her hands on his chest, she lowered herself onto him and flitted her eyes shut at the sensation. She ground her hips down slowly, then raised herself up and forward and back down again. His hands guided her hips as she repeated this motion, slowly at first, then quicker and quicker. She squeezed her muscles around him and harsh moans filled the room as the tempo sped. A shrill tone ripped from her throat and her nails clawed into his chest as his hands squeezed her hips and they both came at once.

Aria collapsed onto his chest, sweat dripping from her brow. She rested her head just below his chin as they both struggled for breath, his arms instinctively reaching up to cradle her. One hand smoothed her damp hair behind her ear.

Exhausted, they stayed like this, unmoving, only listening to the other breathe until they both fell fast asleep.

* * *

[To KatyForYou: Even though I could easily send you PM, I feel like answering your questions here. I was very tempted to throw something in about the other girls being lesbians, but I decided against it cuz coming from Ezra.. it felt a little wrong... I thought their hotness should speak for itself haha and Hardy can use his imagination to fill in the rest. ;)  
I DO wish Hardy would make another appearance on the show! Soooo much! Have you seen his show Suits on USA network? It's brilliant. The dialogue is so quick and his character is like... you instantly love him. He's hilarious. It probably wouldn't be that hard to get him back on the show, even if it's for a quick scene like a phone call with Ezra or something, cuz isn't he dating the actress who plays Spencer? He should definitely come back. I want this to happen.  
I think the reason Hardy is in like every Ezria fanfic is cuz he's basically the only person in Ezra's life we've ever met (besides Jackie, who we'd all rather forget). The show has given us virtually no info about Ezra's life, so we have to fill in the blanks ourselves. ]


	70. Chapter 70

By morning, Ezra had turned onto his side and Aria, no longer on top of him, lay on her side as well, facing him. Their limbs were all tangled, not to mention her hair, which stuck to both of them. He woke first this time, shifting his position the slightest bit, seeing the red glow of daylight behind his eyelids. Ezra's movement caused Aria to wake as well, and she didn't mind being woken this way at all, though she _had_ been hoping to catch him laughing in his sleep overnight. Ever since she'd heard he did that, she had been dying to see it, maybe even film it, because the idea was too cute to stand, but both of them were so thoroughly worn out from the previous night's rather enjoyable sequence of events, they both slept straight through. _There's plenty of time for that,_ she thought.

Aria opened her eyes, blinking, then focusing on his smiling face, said, "I do love waking up to you," reiterating yesterday's unquestionably true sentiment.

"The feeling is mutual." The sleep in her eyes and remnants of eyeliner and mascara smudged under her lashes could not deter him from thinking the sight of her in his (or someone's) bed would never get old.

She smiled, then scowled, realizing her hair was matted to her face and her skin was covered in dried sweat, and said, "Ugh… I need to shower."

"Shall I join you?" Ezra asked, suggestively running a finger down her upper arm, testing the waters to see if the mission he'd embarked on yesterday might come to be accomplished this morning.

Aria lifted the freest hand, her left, to unstick some strands from her forehead and tried to run her fingers through the unkempt tresses. The endeavor was unsuccessful. "Not this time," she said, bunching the dark mane behind her instead. "Though I am a little sad we didn't get to take advantage of that giant claw foot tub in there. It's just like the one at that hotel."

He'd noticed. "Mmmm, next time."

Her mind drifted to the memories they made at the hotel. How he unzipped her dress as they stood in front of the window looking out on the bright lights of the city. How even though he surprised her with the hotel room in the first place, she still had to convince him being together was right. How she knew he had given in when he joked about her getting him drunk and taking advantage of him the night they had almost lost everything. She remembered how soft and warm the robes originally hanging in the closet felt after they took a dip in the pool in their undies. How they ordered a bottle of champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries from room service and how they indulged in both, submerged in the claw foot tub. How after the limo ride home and the early-morning _activities_ at his place, she only got about 2 hours of sleep that night. And how totally worth it it was since they had gotten to make up for lost time. She wasn't lying when she told Hanna it was one of the best nights of her life.

Aria had been staring at his face, but he could tell her eyes weren't focusing on anything. "I thought you had to shower," he said after she hadn't moved for a while, brushing her hair aside, hoping to read her thoughts.

The sound of his voice almost snapped her back to reality, but she was enjoying reliving those happy memories too much to let it. She turned onto her back, ignoring Ezra's arm underneath it, and thought back to the time she ambushed Ezra in his apartment before school and begged him to make her stage manager of the play. She waited around while he took a shower and decided to ambush him a second time. Wrapped only in a towel, she knocked on the door, "_Can I come in a sec, I wanted to ask you something_."

"_Sure, what's up_?" he replied as she stepped into the steam-filled room and shut the door behind her. She pulled the curtain and dropped the towel and asked, "_How late do you think we'll be today_?"

He got over his surprise in 2 seconds flat and pulled her into the tub with him. "_Very_."

Ezra watched Aria lightly close her eyes and take a long slow noiseless breath. "What are you thinking?" he asked, wishing he could join her in her trance.

Groaning, and rolling over, she answered, "I was thinking I wished the shower here had a little ledge like yours at home," and rolled onto her feet, leaving him to figure that one out all on his own.

.

Aria took the first well-needed shower, unfortunately alone, and was pleased she had decided to bring the full-size bottle of mango conditioner, much needed to get through the chaos that was her hair. Then she threw on the items she meant to have worn last night and went out for breakfast while Ezra showered.

Spencer stood and Hanna sat at the island, while the rest were out on the patio eating bagels, and both ceased the chit chat when Aria entered the kitchen. Hanna spun around in her seat as Aria said, "Hey," to her friends. Her towel-dried hair was clipped up in a bun on top of her head and the length of Ezra's Hollis tee made the short drawstring shorts she wore virtually undetectable.

"What on _earth_ were you two _doing_ last night!" Hanna exclaimed.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Aria replied cheekily, buttering a nearby bagel.

"We could hear you all the way upstairs!"

With an insincere puzzled tone, Aria said, "That's funny. I didn't hear any noise coming from up there," then dropped the act and declared, "_You_ must be _doing it wrong_!"

Spencer almost choked on her bagel. Hanna, for once in her life, was utterly speechless. Aria sauntered outside.

.

During breakfast, dark clouds rolled in and it began to drizzle. They considered ending the vacation a few hours early, but no one wanted to go home quite yet. Spencer suggested a board game, opening up the hall closet to view their options. Toby suggested Scrabble which Spencer shot down immediately, on the grounds they had too many players, though they both knew the real reason. She wasn't willing to lose to him again, especially not in front of all of their friends, or her former English teacher.

They settled on Scattergories and everyone had a ton of fun playing, laughing at some unusual word choices and challenging the most absurd ones certain people tried to slip through, for example, Hanna's insistence a walrus counted as a farm animal. They had to Google Ezra's answer 'knackwurst' for 'ethnic foods,' a type of sausage he had had while in Germany, and also Toby's answer of 'fauteuil' for 'a piece of living room furniture.' While everyone else came up with 'footstool' or 'futon,' Toby was the only one to get points, for knowing the name for the obscure French chair. Emily, Caleb, and Spencer unwittingly all taunted Hanna by writing 'Ezria' for 'a girl's name,' not minding one bit when they lost points for writing the same answer. The group voted to call it quits after Spencer wrote 'Great Green Gobs of Greasy Grimy Gopher Guts' for 'song titles,' making it impossible for anyone to catch up to her new high score.

The sun did eventually come out and they decided to take one last dip and enjoy the ocean air before calling it a day and heading back to Rosewood.

While packing up their things and tidying the room into a semi-respectable state, Aria said sadly, "I wish we didn't have to leave. This weekend couldn't have been more perfect. I'm not looking forward to what awaits us back in Rosewood."

Ezra walked up and hugged her from behind and they looked at themselves in the mirror above the taller dresser. "I would stay here forever with you if I could, but we have to go home and face the music."

She turned around in his arms and he leaned down to kiss her. His tongue bid entrance into her mouth which she warmly invited in. They stood there for a while merely enjoying the taste of each other's lips, then when his hands inched up into her hair, she sighed, and released him, nibbling on his bottom lip until they finally broke apart.

"They're probably waiting for us," she said.

* * *

There's a link to the wiki page for Scattergories in my profile if you've never played it and don't understand the concept.

To anonymous: Hahaha I noticed that yesterday morning! The sex chapter is chapter 69. It's too perfect.  
Thank you very much. :)


	71. Chapter 71

So our little (or lengthy, either one lol) beach weekend has come to an end. :*( LoL. Hopefully this next chapter will help make up for the lack of a new episode tonight. Booo ABC Family. For shame making us wait 2 whole weeks. (I might be a lil bitter hehe.)

* * *

On the ride home, Ezra thanked Spencer sincerely for having them at her beach house and for giving them an incredible memorable weekend. Aria wanted to go upstairs with him to the apartment, but knew her mom would want to see her being dropped off by one of the girls, and like he said, it was time to face the music.

They dropped off Toby next for the same reason, even though he lived closer to Spencer's house than Aria's. Spencer insisted on carrying her duffel bag to the house even though Aria said it wasn't heavy. The blowdryer, full-size hair products, substantial makeup case and 6 novels inside the bag, 5 of which she never even cracked open, would beg to differ, not to mention the 4 jars of assorted jams and maple apple butter Aria had purchased with Emily, adding 3 additional pounds to the original weight. Ella greeted them at the door.

"Hi, mom," Aria said, giving her a hug.

"Hi, sweetie. Hi, Spencer," she said as Aria let go.

"Hi, Mrs. Montgomery," she said, handing her Aria's bag.

"Thanks," Ella said as she took the bag, then feeling the weight, said, "What've you got in here? It was only one weekend." Aria had always been an overpacker. Not with clothes, that always seemed to be under control, but everything else.

"Just the essentials for a weekend with the girls," she said with a grin, then turned. "Thanks, Spence. I had a great time. Talk to you later."

"Bye," she waved as she went back to her running car.

Ella brought the bag inside, setting it down on the carpet next to the coat rack and Mike's sporting equipment. They remained in the foyer. "Did you guys have fun?"

"Mmhm," she nodded enthusiastically, "the weather was _perfect,_ except for this morning. We went swimming, we rode bikes, hung out on the beach, there was even a jacuzzi-"

"You shouldn't go in jacuzzis," Ella interrupted, "it's bad for the b-"

"I know," Aria cut her off. "I've read all the books. We turned down the temperature."

"Oh," she said. _Of course you did. _"Your friends know then?" Ella figured as much after getting that text from Emily.

"I told them this weekend," Aria lied. She didn't want her mother to feel bad she confided in her friends first, but wondered if lying to her friends as well as her family for months made her look worse.

"What did they say?"

"They're really happy for me. And I hope you are too," she said with a tiny expectant smile.

Ella took a breath. "Aria… it's not that simple. This is a _big_ deal and you deliberately lied about it for weeks. You understand why we're angry." Ella didn't even know the half of it. She knew Aria had continued to fill her birth control prescription every month, after she apparently no longer needed it, and she had seen the tampon wrappers in the bathroom wastebasket at the expected time of month, obvious plants. She had even found an open box of condoms in Aria's bottom dresser drawer just last week, confirming her already strong suspicions Aria was sleeping with Ezra - a distasteful thought, but she was relieved they were being responsible. However, Ella hadn't found the crackers Aria kept near her bed to help with the morning sickness. She hadn't put it together that the 'allergies' were really a pregnancy symptom. She hadn't noticed the subtle wardrobe changes, or realized the cup of coffee routinely attached to Aria's right hand was just for show. She thought the 'glow' was general happiness and contentment in her life and relationship. Ella had no clue Aria had been tossing pairs of jeans which no longer fit comfortably into the laundry unworn. Or that the new bras and jeans she had purchased to accommodate her changing figure were being laundered at Ezra's. Or that any such baby-related purchases, vitamins and books included, were paid for in cash so they didn't show up on the credit card statement. Or that Aria would fastidiously clear her browser history every time she stepped away from her laptop on the off chance someone might see it. It hadn't yet occurred to her the reason Aria spent so much time out of the house, eating meals elsewhere and always running out for one activity or another, was to hide the pregnancy.

"Yes." Aria didn't try to defend herself.

"We didn't want this for you," Ella said, trying to explain where she was coming from. "To be saddled with a baby before you even finish high school." Aria didn't appreciate her mother's use of the word 'saddled.' She would have preferred 'blessed with.' Ella saw the glower and said, "It's just that it's hard to see you growing up so fast and it feels like we're losing you."

Aria grew up real fast when her best friend mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night and never came back. She didn't have much choice in the matter. "You're not losing me. Where am I going?" she asked rhetorically, holding her arms out and swiveling her head around, looking for the place she was supposedly going to.

Recalling Aria's comment outside the coffee shop, Ella said, "From the sound of it, you're going to Ezra's…"

"I'm not going anywhere yet," Aria said, folding her arms over the yellow and grey graphic t-shirt dress she wore. It was belted low in the middle with a studded leather belt which matched her sandals.

"Can you promise me something?" Ella asked, needing to hear the answer straight from Aria lips, though she knew what it would be. "Promise me he never took advantage of yo-"

"Never," she said, without blinking.

"Because you know how this looks." It looked like a very stupid 22-year old man got a decidedly headstrong 16-year-old girl pregnant. And, oh yeah, up until about 5 months ago, graded her term papers and literary essays for a living.

"We could care less how it looks. We both know it feels right and that we will make it work."

Ella contemplated this.

"Mom?" Aria asked, lightly scratching her cheek. "What about dad?" She had been able to put him out of her mind most of the weekend, but the closer they got to home, the more she worried.

Ella sighed heavily. "He'll come around. It's going to take time." Byron had found other things to do this weekend besides talk to Ella. She gave him the space she needed, thinking once Aria got home, they could all have a talk.

"I get it," Aria said, "but I don't understand how he could hate Ezra so much. A few months ago, they were friends." And they _could_ still be friends, she thought. They had enough in common.

"That makes it worse," she told her. "From your dad's perspective, his colleague, his _friend_, carried on a secret relationship with his teenaged daughter and lied to his face about it. And now you're pregnant." It wasn't an easy word to say. She had practiced it over the weekend, trying to come to terms with the fact her child, in high school, was pregnant. "He's not okay with it."

Aria knew all that, but it didn't change one fact. "You can't help who you fall in love with."

"I suppose you can't," Ella grudgingly agreed.

"Does that mean _you've_ come around?" Aria asked hopefully.

With a pointed stare, she replied, "You haven't given me much choice."

Aria responded to this by hugging her mother again. Ella petted her hair and rocked her back and forth. "...My baby's having a baby…" Ella said quietly, tears welling.

Aria could hear the tears in her voice. "Don't cry…" _Or I'm gonna start crying too._

Ella held Aria out by her shoulders to look at her. "You would cry too if your daughter was making you a grandmother at 40."

They laughed together.

"You just wait, it might happen," Ella said, blotting a tear with her wrist.

Aria started to crouch down, saying, "Could she maybe be born first before you've got her married off with kids of her own?" Before Ella could say anything, Aria said, "Here," reaching into her bag. "I brought you some strawberry jam from a farmer's market near Spencer's house." She handed it over. "And this." Aria handed her mom a copy of the sonogram, then took another copy and stuck it on the fridge.

.

Dinner was tense. When talk turned from final exams and weekend happenings, to summer school and early graduation, Byron excused himself from the table. Mike gave Aria a comforting look when Ella went to talk to him.

"I can't sit there and pretend this is normal dinner conversation," Byron said, aggravated.

"It sounds to me like she's made some pretty responsible choices," Ella said, adding, "As far as school goes I mean."

"Responsible. That's a laugh. Throwing your life away for some fool hardly seems responsible."

"That fool is going to be the father of your grandchild." It left a bad taste in her mouth to say it, but it was a fact.

"Ella, stop it. I'm well aware. You talk about him like he's some saint. It makes me sick." It was one thing to see how Ezra could make Aria believe he loved her, but to have Ella fooled as well, it really did make him feel sick. And it made Byron angry to think of the mess Aria would be in when he inevitably left, yet it was still preferable to seeing his smug face every day, since he was now, unfortunately, likely to be in their lives forever.

"He's no saint," Ella stated bluntly, "but Aria loves him, and he is supporting her through this. Would you rather he disappear?"

"Hell yes!" he exclaimed vehemently. "I tried my best to get him out of our lives since you were hellbent on doing nothing!" Byron's scheme would have been a win-win for everybody, in his opinion.

"What are you talking about?"

Byron explained himself. "I recommended him for a job. A very cushy," _non-teaching,_ "job in Louisiana. But it was too little, too late. He'd already done his damage to our daughter."

"I can't believe you did that," Ella said, dismayed and angry. "Without even talking to me."

"Don't give me that," Byron shot back. "You made all these choices single-handedly, and now look where we are."

"I was doing what was best for our daughter. Trying to tear them apart would have done no good," _because she was already pregnant._ "Don't you see that now?"

"No."

* * *

[Link to Aria's outfit from 3.03 Kingdom of the Blind in my profile. Instead of the striped skirt, pretend the yellow t-shirt is long enough to be a dress.

I had sort of wanted to add more to the last chapter, I think I had an idea about Aria coiling up the cord for the hair dryer, but I forgot what I wanted to do, so I left it as is. If I ever decide to add something, I'll be sure to let you know.

In case you're wondering, no one else says anything to Aria when she goes outside, she just joins the conversation, whatever they're talking about. Then when Ezra comes out, he's forgotten what went on last night, well not forgotten haha, he'll never forget, but he's not thinking about it cuz he's in search of coffee and food. Nobody says anything to him either, but they are *all* thinking it. I never wrote this scene cuz I wanted to end it on Aria's (hilarious) comment to Hanna, and I dunno what else would happen, nothing too interesting if they're all just eating bagels lol. I'm open to suggestions, but I'll probly just leave it unless some great idea comes to me one day.

To guest: Thank you very much for your comment. I'm glad you liked that line! It's like one of my favorite lines in the whole story. ]


	72. Chapter 72

Happy Fourth of July to all my American readers and Happy Wednesday to all my international readers!

* * *

"Aria?" a woman called as she entered her home Monday evening.

"We're in here," Aria answered from the TV room.

The tall red-haired woman turned the corner to find Aria on the sofa with her 5-month-old son asleep in her arms. Aria was babysitting for Maryann, a friend and neighbor of the Parthas. Seeing them there, she had no doubt her son was in good hands.

"I was going to put him down... but I didn't want to..." Aria explained. "He's too cute." Besides his adorable face, he wore the cutest navy blue footie pajamas dotted all over with little white choo-choo trains.

"Aww," she said. "I do it too sometimes. My mother says it'll spoil him to hold him while he sleeps, but sometimes I just don't want to let him go."

"What does she know anyway?" Aria joked.

With a smile, Maryann agreed, "My thoughts exactly."

Aria shifted her weight, preparing to stand, when Maryann said from the doorway, "You can stay, if you want. Just a little longer while I put on a load of laundry?"

"Sure. I'd love to," Aria said. "My boyfriend should be here in a minute though to pick me up."

"Have him come in," she suggested. "Unless you think the sight of you with a baby might scare him away."

Aria chuckled. "No, I don't think anything would scare him away..." she said quietly, looking down at the baby. Aria hadn't mentioned she was pregnant; it hadn't come up. Now seemed like a strange time to bring it up.

Maryann smiled to herself, and said, "I'll be downstairs then. Call me if you need me."

Aria sat up and reached into her purse, careful not to disturb the baby. With one hand, and some difficulty, she sent a text to Ezra.

.

Aria: Knock when you get here

.

Ezra was already waiting outside when he got her text. He was actually just about to text her to let her know he was there.

Seconds later, Aria heard a knock at the door. "That was fast, huh?" she softly chirped at the baby as she got to her feet. She tread lightly down the hall and pulled open the front door. She wore a simple black tee tucked into a green and black tribal print skirt and suede ankle boots.

"H-" he started, then eyeing the baby, quietly continued, "Hi."

"Hey. Come inside," she said smilingly, and moved aside.

"It's okay?" Ezra was understandably concerned his presence in the house might get her fired if the parents found him there, though the irony was lost on him.

"Uh huh."

Slightly apprehensive, Ezra stepped inside and Aria closed the door behind him.

"Who's this?" he asked, eyes on the tiny child curled up against her chest. He was strangely focused on the pajamas, wondering at first if it was all one piece, then spotting the long zipper down the front, thinking the way it encased this small human, limbs and all, was very clever. The boy looked very comfortable, unaware of anything going on in the non-dream world.

"This is Jack. Would you like to hold him?" Aria asked brightly.

His eyes shot up to meet hers, then back down, then up and down again fairly rapidly. "I, uh, I don't want to wake him," he said. _Or drop him._

"He won't wake up. Here," she said, holding her arms out slightly in his direction.

He didn't step forward though. "Uhh, I never... I don't-"

"You never held a baby before?" _How has this never come up?_ she wondered.

"Not never... maybe once or twice." Ezra briefly held his cousin's baby at a family function once. His mother plopped him on his lap as she ran to deal with some minor crisis. And Ezra remembered holding his neighbor's kid once when he was just a kid himself. Both times he was seated.

She laughed at him. "You're gonna have to get used to it. It's not hard. Just take him," she said, pushing the small boy into his arms.

His eyes went wide, and he tried to back away, but it was too late. He was already holding the baby.

"Just make sure your arm is always under his head, and don't let go," she instructed with her hands on his forearms.

"I'm not," he said, more to convince himself than anything, using his hands to gently adjust him into a more secure position. The boy's head rested in the crook of Ezra's elbow, legs scrunched into the other one, and arm dangled out in front.

"See?" She let go. "He's not going anywhere," Aria said, and since her hands were free now, she was able to tuck some hair behind her ear which had been caught in the dangly metal peacock earring she was wearing and tugging uncomfortably on her earlobe since she first stood up. When Jack was awake earlier, his grabby little fingers had gone for that earring, and the other one, and her long hair, repeatedly. Instead of doing the practical thing, removing the earrings and tying her hair back, she turned it into a game and would clap his little hands together and rub noses every time he made an attempt. She wished Ezra had been there to see it. The sound of a baby laughing was one of the best sounds in the world.

Ezra looked down at the little boy with fair skin and reddish wispy hair asleep in his arms, breathing softly. "His eyelashes are really long," he said in wonderment.

"I know! I've been staring at them for hours..." she said. "And his tiny nose. And look," she added, lifting up his arm, "look at these tiny fingers," with a high baby-talk voice. Aria was overjoyed to finally be able to share this with him. So far, the baby was this abstract thing neither of them could see or touch, but she felt close to because she was the one carrying it. Ezra, it appeared, had no experience being around babies, but she could see him already getting the hang of things, slowly swaying and lightly bouncing the tiny child, holding on tight, but not too tight, completely and utterly spellbound. It was entirely unconscious on his part; he had no idea he was doing it.

"Wow..." he said, mesmerized by the tiniest fingernails he'd ever seen, then noticed who could only be the mother coming toward them down the hall and straightened up. He had been slightly crouching down to Aria's level without realizing. "I, uh, hope you don't mind..."

"Why would I mind? Go right ahead." The tall woman talked with her hands. "I was just gonna unload the dishwasher. Get as much done as I can while he's asleep, cuz when he's awake, he wants all my attention."

Ezra nodded.

"Aria, why don't you take him?" Maryann suggested. "Your boyfriend looks a little frightened..."

Ezra laughed feebly, trying to wipe the expression off his face.

"No, I told him he has to practice," Aria said, shooting Ezra a meaningful glance.

"What did I say about scaring him away?" she teased.

"No, uh, she's right," Ezra said. "I just realized I have no idea what I'm doing." _Which is the most awesome thing for the stranger holding your baby to tell you._

"You _just_ realized that?" Aria joked. It was a good thing her plan worked out so well this evening because who knows how long it would have been before he admitted to never holding a baby before. She imagined they'd be in the delivery room and he'd back away stuttering, "I.. uh,... I never..." if she hadn't arranged this little get-together by having Hanna drop her off earlier and Ezra pick her up.

Maryann watched them inquisitively.

"We're, uh..," he began, looking to Aria for permission to continue, "expecting," Ezra explained while Aria beamed at him, both thrilled to actually get to make the announcement for once. "And I don't have the first clue about any of this."

"Wow, congratulations," Maryann said jovially. "That's exciting news."

"Thanks," Aria said, nodding.

"When are you due?"

"January," she replied.

"So you've got plenty of time to teach him a thing or two about all this baby stuff," she said like it was a piece of cake.

"Yep," Aria laughed.

Jack began to stir in Ezra's arms and he got the briefest glimpse of Jack's vibrant green eyes as his eyelids fluttered rapidly. Ezra looked terrified, and said, "What did I do? I didn't mean t-"

"It's alright," Maryann assured, as Aria took Jack from Ezra, picking him up by under his arms, then resting his little head on her shoulder.

"I'll put him down," she said to his mom, and took him down the hall. Ezra watched as she placed a hand on the back of his little head and made a soothing _shhhh_ sound, disappearing into the bedroom.

"You don't have anything to worry about," Maryann told Ezra. "She's really good at this."

"I can tell..." He was amazed by the sight of them and Aria's absolute competence in stark contrast to his thorough incompetence. The image he had of the future just became a lot clearer.

"You're welcome to come back and_ practice_ with Jack anytime. Aria's a doll. I'll definitely be asking her back."

Ezra nodded, eyes still a bit panic-stricken, as Maryann went into the kitchen. He stood there a few moments, unsure what to do, then made his way down the hall. The room was dark, dimly lit by the light from the hallway. He watched Aria place her hand on Jack's chest, trying to soothe him back to sleep in the crib. When she turned on the mobile, he stopped fussing.

Aria turned around and jumped, startled by Ezra's presence in the doorway. Then she walked over to him, giving him an overdue hug.

"I like how you look with a baby in your arms," he said, rocking her.

Into his chest, she sighed, "Me too."

* * *

[I cast Laura Prepon (Donna from That 70s Show) as Maryann - Link to her photo in my profile

Links to Jack's PJs and Aria's outfit also in my profile. Aria's wearing what she wore during the middle chunk of 3.03 Kingdom of the Blind, except she's wearing a plain black t-shirt instead of that collared top. It bugs me, probably more than it should, that the green in her earrings does not match the green in her skirt.

Thanks to maddie. I basically take no credit for that decision lol. It's just how I see it in my head. :) ]

* * *

So does anyone know anything about M-rated stories being deleted? Is this an official thing that's happening? Do you think my story is in any danger of being deleted? Certain scenes are fairly graphic, but not half as bad as some of the stuff I've read on here. And there's some language sometimes, but I thought that was okay for an M-rated fic. Does anyone think I'll have a problem?


	73. Chapter 73

Ezra reclined in his office at Hollis with his feet up on the desk. The halls were mostly empty since it was summer, but he liked going there anyway, just to get out of the house. On his way today, he stopped at the book store to pick up a copy of Parenting for Dummies since the encounter with Jack last night made him feel more unprepared than ever. He realized the idea he had of having a baby was surprisingly different than seeing and holding an actual baby and hoped Maryann wasn't joking about letting him come back. Maybe next time the little boy would be awake and he could play with him, however children that age like to be played with, of which he was unsure. Peek-a-boo? He thought back to the child development class he mostly slept through freshman year trying to remember if that was too advanced. Perhaps he could read him a story, that seemed like a safe bet. Ezra was surprised at how excited the prospect made him.

The breeze from the oscillating desk fan kept blowing up the corners of the pages as he tried to read, and, with any luck, absorb some information. In front of him also sat Dad's Guide to Pregnancy for Dummies, as well as a stack of other books he had yet to get through.

"I never read any of those books when Aria was born," Ella said from the doorway. Ezra looked up, startled, but not surprised to see her since it was only a matter of time before one or both of Aria's parents turned up. He dropped his feet to the ground, and sat up straight in his chair as she said, "Figured all the answers would just come to us," and stepped inside.

"Ella, hi. Uh, can I get you something? I- I can offer you chocolate milk. Or an apple. Or both. Whatever you want." _And I've got some booze in that cabinet over there if you think it'll help. _

"Chocolate milk?" she asked, wondering.

"I, uh," _keep it here because_ "Aria likes it, since," _I knocked her up and_, "uh, and..."_ Stop explaining._ "Please, sit," he gestured with his hand at the chair opposite him. "Anywhere you want. Or stand, that's fine too." Realizing he was only digging himself deeper, he said, clasping both hands as if they controlled his lips, "I'm, uh, just gonna shut up now," and some very vivid images of Aria writhing about on that very desktop, shouting obscenities, consumed by an unthinkable state of euphoria, flashed through his mind.

Ella took the seat in front of the big wooden desk. Under other circumstances, she would be amused by his nervousness. Then again, he'd have no reason to be nervous, under other circumstances.

Ezra's mouth hung open for one full second engrossed in the memory, hoping to god Ella didn't conceal a secret ability to read thoughts, until he dug some fingernails into the back of his left hand and forced composure, (hopefully inaudibly) clamping his jaw shut, literally slamming a door inside his mind and returning to an considerably less desirable reality. He didn't know what he'd have done if she'd chosen to sit on the couch or the chair in the corner.

The advice he just gave himself to shut up.. yeah, he didn't take it, and started talking again, quickly. "I'm sorry this happened so fast and for what happened the other day. We didn't mean for you to find out like that, and I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner, it's just a little overwhelming and we didn't know how you'd react. She came to me, the day after you laid down the ground rules, like some sort of cruel joke, the _second_ you started trusting me and-"

"Ezra, stop." She held her hand up. _She sees right through this_, he thought. "It's fine. I just wanted to talk to you." _Oh. When did I become such a good liar? _he wondered. "And apologize for jumping to conclusions the other day. I know you wouldn't-"

"You have _nothing_ to apologize for," he told her, shaking his head as reinforcement. "I get it. I know how this all looks." Ezra's fingertips grazed the back of his hand, an automatic response to the stinging sensation, and he realized he'd actually broken the skin, a welcomed injury if it meant he could keep focus on the matter at hand. Usually the procession of little half moon marks under his knuckles were created by Aria's fingernails, not his own, and this thought led him to a series of others, moving pictures of the circumstances under which those marks were created. _Get a fucking grip, Z._

"Yes, well." Ella did not voice what was on her mind.

Ezra, uncomfortable with the silence, afraid his attention might drift elsewhere, into treachery-filled places it had no right being at this moment, asked, "How did you know I was here?"

"Just a hunch," she said indifferently. "I would have tried your apartment later. Obviously, there are some things we have to talk about," bringing the discussion back on-topic.

"I know," Ezra agreed. "I know you must be angry. Please start yelling, get it over with. I- I know I deserve it. You won't say anything I haven't thought already." The lack of yelling was scaring him more than if she'd thundered in there, ranting and raving about his irresponsible behavior and lack of forethought and utter stupidity, but less than certain other possibilities he'd been considering all weekend.

"I'm not here to yell at you. I _am_ angry, but there's no point..." she trailed off, looking away, then forced her eyes to land on his face again. "I wanted to know what your plan was."

He blinked. "My plan?"

"Yes."

"My plan..." he began, deciding how to lay it out, "is to, uh, stay here and help her raise the baby, be there for whatever she needs, though, clearly, she is more ready for this than I am," he added, gesturing at the array of parenting books in front of him.

"Don't forget she's only 17," Ella reminded him.

His foot-in-mouth syndrome seemed to have flared up again. "I haven't. I-I didn't mean it like that-"

"I know what you meant." Ella knew Aria was good with kids, but it didn't mean she should have one of her own. She let out a breath. "…She said something about an apartment."

"Yeah," Ezra confirmed, "uh, I'm going to rent the apartment upstairs when the current tenants move out. It's a 2-bedroom, on the 4th floor."

"And you want Aria to move in with you," she asked, without using the proper intonation for a question.

"Well, yes," he said, adding, "At least, after the baby is born."

Ella sighed, clearly thinking this over. "And if I said I'd rather she live at home?"

Skipping only one beat to choose his words, he said, "I'd say she wants to live with me.."

Ella's eyes seemed to be focusing on the edge of the stack of books while she considered his answer, and Ezra prayed she wasn't using this quiet moment to work out some sort of visitation schedule.

Ezra looked at her hands, clasped, resting on the surface of the desk opposite his, unsure when she'd begun mirroring his rigid posture. Again, uncomfortable with the silence, he spouted whatever he was thinking. Luckily, the steady sequence of filthy images running through his head had subsided. He said, "You've been painting?" Ella had shown him a painting she had done once. It was quite a captivating piece. Artistic talent ran in their family.

Ella lifted her hands, flipping them over to see the streaks of green paint, and said, "I tend to paint more during stressful times." She recalled when inspiration had struck during a similarly stressful time last year, when she moved out of her own house because of her husband's lies and infidelity.

Ezra unlocked his fingers, leaned back in his chair the slightest bit and rested his hands on his knees. "I'm sorry... for being the source of your stress."

She also relaxed slightly. "You're not," she said, then added, "Not all of it."

Guessing the subtext, hesitantly, Ezra asked, "How is Byron, now, with all of this?" sweeping his eyes across the array of books, to define "all of this" as if it wasn't crystal clear to Ella already.

"How do you think? He's not handling it well. And you need to know, he may never. He may never accept this." There was a hint of sadness in Ella's voice beneath the cool exterior.

"I'm sorry," he said, "for coming between you like this. It's not-"

"You're apologizing an awful lot," she cut him off, "but not for what I expected."

It took him a second to process this. "Oh," Ezra said, then met her gaze again. "That's because I'm not sorry for that. I'm not sorry this is happening. Just the circumstances."

Ella nodded once, and stood. "Ezra, do me a favor. If you're going to change your mind, tell me first, so I can be there, to, pick up the pieces."

Without flinching, he said, "It's not gonna happen."

She looked down at him to read his face, and believed him whole-heartedly, but didn't speak. Ezra took this to mean she doubted his answer, and, with more gravity in his voice than he'd displayed thus far, said, "Ella, I'm serious. Even if she didn't want me, it's still my child. I don't see this as a mistake and I'm not changing my mind about anything."

"Okay," she said, having heard what she needed to hear. "I'll let you get back to your books. Let me know if you find any answers in there."

* * *

[Thanks to guest and Notinyourlifetimehoney and everyone else for the reviews. I appreciate every one.

No update tomorrow. I'm gonna be out of the house all day. Barring unforeseen circumstances, next chapter (a 2-parter) up Saturday and Sunday.

I have to be honest. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to keep up with updating every day. I spent a lot of time editing these past chapters and the next few and have neglected some upcoming ones in the process. They're written, but kind of bare bones, not fleshed out properly, and I have less time to work on them than I did when I started this. So I apologize if the schedule becomes a little more erratic. I hope you'll stick around though because there's a lot more to come. ]


	74. Chapter 74

Holy crap. I can't believe I broke 100 000 words with that last chapter! That is insane... and awesome. Thank you x 1 million to everyone who reads this! I never thought I'd write something people want to read and am _sooo_ glad you like it.

* * *

(Part 1 of 2)

Ezra let himself into his apartment that afternoon to find Aria dusting his bookshelf. She swayed her hips and hummed along to the music playing in her ears, her back to him. The mp3 player was tucked into her bra under the scoop neckline of the green and white striped jersey-knit dress she wore. The wire of the earbuds dangled down in front of her chest, swinging back and forth as she moved.

Ezra shut the door and dropped his messenger bag to the floor. Aria was oblivious to his presence, continuing to flick the duster into every crevice, getting on her tippy-toes to reach a higher shelf. Ezra came up behind her and touched her waist, causing her to jump. Aria whipped around, yanking the wires from her ears and exclaimed, "You scared me! Don't sneak up on me like that, I nearly jumped out of my skin!" She pushed him away, but he didn't go very far.

"I'm sorry! I couldn't help myself. I wasn't exactly quiet when I came in and you looked so..." His eyes combed the curves of her body, finishing the sentence for him. Aria seemed slightly more willing to forgive, allowing him to remove the duster from her hand and entwine their fingers together. "I don't get to see you like that very often and if this weekend taught us anything, it's we don't dance nearly enough." He spun her around and dipped her backwards, letting her long hair sweep across the arm of the leather chair.

"There's no music," she said as Ezra pulled her back up to him.

"So make some," he said. Aria began humming the song she'd been listening to when he came in and they moved their feet in synchronized steps across the floor enjoying the spontaneity of the moment. After a few minutes, and one more twirl, they ended their dance. Ezra pulled her down onto his lap on the sofa and parted her lips with his own. Aria kissed him back then let out a contented sigh.

"How was your day?" he asked.

"Good," she said. She felt really good today - she had no nausea this morning, felt energetic and was in an upbeat mood.

"I hope you didn't spend the whole time cleaning. You don't have to do that," Ezra told her. He thought he kept his apartment pretty clean, but since the beginning, Aria had this urge to tidy up, always offering to clean out his refrigerator or organize his bookshelf. He had to point out there were many, as in bookshelves, plural, and it would be quite the undertaking to attempt to rearrange it all. Plus, he felt right at home amongst the organized chaos. He had a system all his own.

"Someone's gotta do it," she joked. "No, I haven't been here long. I just felt like doing something productive and there's a layer of dust over there half an inch thick. I don't think you've touched a book on that shelf in a year."

"It's very possible..."

She chuckled.

"And how's the peanut?" he asked, placing a hand on her stomach, then sliding over in order to press an ear.

"She's growing," Aria said. "Can't you tell?"

Holding her hips and listening intently, he sensibly answered, "I can tell there's no correct answer to that question, but growing is a good thing, don't forget."

"No, I know. I don't mind really." She looked down at him. "Whadayou think you're gonna hear in there?"

"A heartbeat," he replied. _You never know._

"Aim higher. Right now all you're listening to is my lunch being digested."

Ezra laughed. He placed a kiss below her belly button and sat up. Aria had been hoping he might drift a little lower, but settled for a strong arm around her shoulder.

"How was _your_ day so far?" she asked, scratching his head.

He wondered if he should lead with the part when he got a free coffee from the truck on campus because his 'valued customer' card had been stamped 12 times, but went with the most noteworthy part of his day instead. "Uh... well... your mom dropped by for a visit."

She pulled back to look at him. "She did! What happened? Did she yell? Am I gonna have to talk you off a ledge again?"

"No, she didn't yell," he said, still incredulous. And still waiting for the other shoe to drop. "I expected her to. Hell, I even _told_ her to yell. But she didn't want to get into it. We just talked."

Aria relaxed a bit, slightly annoyed he asked to be yelled at. "What did you talk about?"

He wouldn't mention anything about the tumultuous thought processes he'd had at the beginning of their meeting. "Well, first, I offered her chocolate milk, for some inexplicable reason, and then I think I ordered her to sit down, and started apologizing. A lot. I managed to throw in the part about not finding out until after she came over here that night. I think you may be rubbing off on me a bit too much..."

Aria laughed, wishing she had some chocolate milk right now, and also wishing she knew exactly what he had apologized for. "Good. I'm glad you said that because it would just hurt her to know I promised no more secrets while keeping one so huge." He nodded understandingly. Now that Ella had heard it from both of them on two separate occasions, neither thought she would question the story. "What did _she_ say?"

"She wanted to know what I planned to do, I think to check I wouldn't be making a run for it, or shirking my responsibility in all this. She seemed... a little sad," Ezra said. "Like I was stealing you away."

Aria sighed. "It'll be okay. She'll realize soon neither of us are going anywhere. And don't let her fool you. She left her laptop in the kitchen this morning and the browser was open to a website selling baby stuff - clothes and toys and mobiles and things. She's just as excited about this as we are."

Ezra nodded. "Why would the baby need a mobile when she's got you? I'm sure the sound of your voice is all it'll take to lull her to sleep."

"I read that white noise is good for getting babies to go to sleep," she said, recalling an article she'd read online recently, watching herself roll the ring between two fingers.

"I bet a lullaby from you is even better," he said, tracing circles on her upper arm. "I'm sure she loves the sound of your voice already."

"She doesn't even have ears yet! Or, she has ears, but they don't work yet," Aria amended, remembering what she had read in one of her books.

"Could you just learn to take a compliment? I'm saying our baby is extremely lucky to have someone who sings as beautifully as you do for a mom."

"Mom..." she sighed like she was repeating a foreign word, and slipped the ring back on her finger, "that's gonna take some getting used to." She didn't expect to hear him say that.

Ezra put his head back saying, "Tell me about it." _He_ didn't expect to hear _himself_ say that. It just came out.

"Well, we've got about 6 months to get used to the idea," Aria said, getting up, then returning to her earlier chore.

Ezra took about 3 seconds trying to get used to the idea, then twisted his head to see what she was doing. "You don't have to do that," he told her again, then he got up too.

"Just let me finish this one shelf."

* * *

[Had to break this chapter in two. This was the best place to do it, trust me.

Aria's dress - from Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares - link to photo in my profile.

To Notinyourlifetimehoney, I'm not sure which chapter I told you to look out for. I remember mentioning the one with Ezra and Emily, that'd be the jacuzzi scene, and I think I mentioned they'd show more PDA, which is sort of included in the jacuzzi scene and also some upcoming ones. Was it something else? I need my memory refreshed lol.  
Sorry not to respond sooner, the review alert system went kinda wonky, I didn't see some of your reviews. Thank you again for leaving them, and if you're curious, there's a link to the wiki page for Scattergories in my profile which describes the rules. It's a really fun game. Good for groups. Makes you think on your toes. ]


	75. Chapter 75

[Reminder, I wrote this before Season 3!]

* * *

Ezra walked over to his messenger bag and pulled out his laptop, then sat back down on the couch to do some work. He had instructed his students to leave comments in a designated thread in the class forum, their thoughts and opinions as they read the next book, and wanted to see if anyone had posted yet. After a few minutes of reading and responding, he asked, "What song were you humming earlier? The tune is stuck in my head."

Aria thought of the song and had an idea. It honestly didn't take much. "Funny you should ask..." she said and stuffed the duster between some books.

"Why?" he asked, turning to look at her and trying to decipher the expression on her face. Was it mischief? He should have been able to detect it by now.

She began swaying her shoulders back and forth and humming the tune once again. She gestured for him to stand, but didn't go over to him.

"What is it?" he asked as he stood, very curious now.

Aria began to sing in a low alluring voice. "_Don't you wanna come with me? / Don't you wanna feel my bones, on your bones? / It's only natural"_ As she sang, she walked backwards in the direction of the bed, gesturing with a 'come hither' finger for him to follow.

Ezra laughed at the fact she would use just about any opportunity to get him into bed and did not protest. She seemed to be in a very good mood and who was he to ruin it? he thought.

"_Don't you wanna swim with me?"_ She kept walking backwards, passing the bed by, to his momentary confusion, and entering the kitchen area. "_Don't you wanna feel my skin, on your skin?" _Aria backed into the counter. Ezra came closer, beckoned by that finger. "_It's only natural._" She hopped up on the counter, kicking off the slip-on wedges she wore, partially sitting on top of the cutting board there. It was the least cluttered surface in the whole kitchen.

Aria held out her hands for him to take and pulled Ezra into a kiss. It was one of those happy enthusiastic kisses, and reminded him of their first kiss, which he was sure was what she was going for. She grabbed his neck while he caught hold of her thigh, rubbing and squeezing it. In between kisses, they smiled at each other, then resumed their heated make-out session. They'd never done it on the counter. On the island, yes, but that was more of a sweep everything off the surface, take me now, there's no time to waste sort of deal. He'd barely been able to say hello before she'd attacked him that time. So now the kitchen counter would be yet another location he'd have some fond memories of, just like the island, and sofa, the floor in front of the bed, the bed itself, obviously, and various pieces of furniture in his office, and, by far the fondest of them all, the car. It took weeks to stop picturing her face in the windshield every time he got into his car after their first night. And their little reenactment hadn't helped.

Aria peeled Ezra's t-shirt up over his head, then leaned back on her palms. Ezra reached under her skirt, hooked his fingers into her panties and pulled them down and off her legs. Their lips collided once more, hungrier this time. Aria's hands fell between them and undid the button and zipper of his pants. She pushed them down and scooted forward a bit, her skirt gathering up at her hips.

Ezra's hand traveled up her thigh, rubbing it again as it made its way between her legs. He pressed his thumb hard against a spot he suspected she might enjoy. And she did. Immensely. Aria lost her balance when the unexpected sensation shot through her, held upright only by Ezra's steady other hand. "Whoa there," he said with a chortle.

"Do it again," she ordered with fire in her eyes, holding tightly to the countertop.

Ezra grinned at her, highly amused, and did it again. Aria inhaled a sharp breath. With the perfect amount of pressure, he moved his thumb in small circles causing her eyes to flutter shut and eliciting a low moan. He dipped a shallow finger in and swirled around, and a quick tremor rolled through her. She moved herself slightly lower, now balancing on the very edge, and murmured, "Ezra.."

"Yes, love?" The tip of his penis grazed her entrance, burning with need.

"Ezzraa.." she whimpered with a mix of pleasure and frustration, wondering what he was waiting for. Did he not see the urgency of this situation?

"What?" he asked, playing dumb. Sometimes teasing her was just oh so much fun.

She took a deep breath and forced her eyes open. "Could you start _fucking _me already!_"_

It was just what he'd wanted to hear. "Such a dirty mouth," he said, pressing his lips to hers and licking the roof of her mouth as he finally pushed himself into her.

_Thump…. Thump…. Thump…. Thump…._ made the sound of the cutting board underneath her. They started off slow. Aria still held onto the countertop and Ezra let go of her waist to grab the straps of her dress and pull them down her shoulders.

_Thump… Thump… Thump… Thump…_

Ezra tugged the fabric lower and helped her pull one arm free at a time, lips still firmly moving together. He was good at multitasking. One hand traveled up her back to unclasp the nude-colored bra she wore as he prodded some low sounds of pleasure out of her. The bra started to fall between them as one hand steadied her hip and the other cleared the unwanted undergarment away with one careless motion.

_Thump.. Thump.. Thump.. Thump.._

He laid that hand on her breast, kneading the underside with his wrist, and swept his thumb back and forth across the nipple causing her breathing to hitch suddenly. She let go of the counter, trusting he wouldn't let her fall, and grabbed his ass to make him pump in and out harder, wresting out a grunt.

_Thump Thump Thump Thump_

Ezra picked up the pace as her nails raked up his back and Aria wrapped her legs tightly around his body. She grabbed fistfuls of his hair, and savagely attacked his mouth with her own, locking her ankles together behind his back.

_ThumpThumpThumpThump_

Every time he thrust upward, she slammed herself down onto him using her elbows on his shoulders for leverage. The delightful, predictable, but never unwelcome, feelings built and built in intensity. No longer able to keep up with the kissing, her head fell back in ecstasy, her body quaking, choking back moans. He captured her throat with his mouth and gripped the counter for support as the orgasm furiously rippled through them both.

Her chest heaved up and down against his and her fingers slowly released the clumps of hair she gripped. She moved backwards slightly, balancing herself more steadily on the surface and laid her head against his chest, drained and satisfied. His knees pressed against the cabinet door below them and he rested his chin on the top of her head. After a few well-needed moments of recovery, Aria pulled her head away and smiled at him. "That's a good song, right?"

* * *

[Bones by The Killers - link in my profile

Guest - thank you for your comment! :)

Notinyourlifetimehoney - I looked back and I found the comment you were referring to. It hasn't come up yet. Should be about 6 chapters from now. I hope I haven't gotten your hopes up too high. It's just a short line that worked really well where I put it, but I may not have thought of it without you, so thanks! ]


	76. Chapter 76

A lot comes out in these next few chapters. I hope it's not too hard to follow, especially with the weird formatting I use towards the bottom here. Sorry 'bout that. I wish we could indent or something to set off the mini-flashbacks I sometimes include. Ask questions if you're confused.

* * *

(Part 1 of 4)

2 days later, Aria and Ella worked in the kitchen preparing the evening's meal. While there was nothing to do besides peel potatoes, and wait for the chicken to finish baking, Ella began the conversation with Aria they both knew was coming.

"I accept that this is happening," Ella began diplomatically, standing in front of the stove. "You're having a baby. Long before I ever expected or would have wanted, but it's happening." The fact was hard to deny since the sonogram picture stared her in the face every time she opened the refrigerator door.

"Yes it is," Aria agreed, sitting across from her.

"And I want to talk to you." Ella leaned her elbows on the counter and clasped her hands.

"What do you want to talk about?" Aria was willing to be as open and honest as she could be without betraying any particular lie or mistruth she needed to uphold.

"I'm still trying to figure out how you managed to get pregnant on the pill."

Not the first place she expected her mother to start, but a valid question. She set the handle of the peeler down on the cutting board for a moment to say, "It happens, I guess. At first I didn't even think it was possible, but obviously… it was. I haven't really thought about it since." Aria Googled the hell out of that shit when she first suspected she was pregnant. It did happen, rarely, but it happened.

"Do you know when it happened? Maybe you missed one and didn't realize," Ella suggested, assuming this to be the case.

Aria resumed peeling. "No, I didn't, and I know exactly when it happened." _It was a quickie on the sofa._

"Why? You said-"

"Based on what the doctor said. The timing. Not because we messed up," Aria elaborated.

Ella attempted to look at her own eyebrows as she asked an uncomfortable question. "Was it the first time, maybe you forgot-"

"No, and no we didn't." She stopped peeling again. "Why are you harping on this? What does it matter now?"

"If you know how it happened, then you can prevent it from happening again in the future," Ella said.

"Let's revisit this conversation in about 6 months or so. It's rather pointless right now, don't you think?" Aria said as she dropped a potato into the bowl.

"Alright.." Ella said as she stood up straight and brushed the bottom of her blouse flat. "I'm going to ask you something else, and then I promise to stop prying. I know you've promised me he never did anything to pressure you, but from what you're telling me… if you're 12 weeks.. it seems like this happened awfully fast. How well could you really have known each other.. before you started sleeping together? It bothers me."

"It shouldn't. He wanted to wait until my 18th birthday, and _I_ wasn't having _any_ of that. Then, he tried to compromise 17," Aria lied through her teeth to satisfy her mother's curiosities. The truth was Ezra was never hung up on the numbers. They mattered, but it was the unethical predicament they had found themselves in that bothered him more than anything. "This," she pointed at her stomach, "is _not_ his fault."

Ella shook her head. "It takes two…"

"He didn't give in until I told him I loved him," Aria said. "It was never right until then."_ True-ish._

"Must've been pretty early on…" Ella was just trying to get some sort of timeline, not that knowing would make her feel any better.

"If I'm honest, I've loved him since day 1. And he loved me too, he just didn't know it yet."

Slightly alarmed by her choice of words, Ella said, "Why do you say that? Did you talk about dating while he was your teacher?" Ella didn't know if 'day 1' meant the day they started talking at Hollis or the first day of school. Little did she know, it meant neither.

Perhaps she'd been too honest. "No. I told you," Aria said firmly. "He never even considered it until I wore him down. He even wanted to ask your permission first." _Never happened._

"And let me guess, _you_ weren't having _any_ of that," Ella said with mock irritation as Aria slid the bowl of freshly peeled potatoes over to her.

"Of course not! What would you have said?"

_I'd have said hell no! _"..Well, at least you waited 'til you said you loved each other." Ella held on to this small, yet important detail.

Aria brought the cutting board over to the trash and scraped the potato peels in. "He actually didn't say it until a few days later, but it didn't matter. I already knew he did." As she handed her mom the wooden board, she said, "Are we done talking about this now?"

Momentarily thrown by Aria's blunt honesty, Ella said, "..No. I want to know why you lied. Why you felt you couldn't tell me what was going on right away."

This was the question she expected to hear and was prepared to answer, mostly truthfully. "Mom, if I had told you I was pregnant 2 days after you gave us permission to date, what would you have done?" Ella chopped while Aria talked. "Or if I had known the day we told you we were already dating and told you both things at once?" Aria asked another rhetorical question. "Would we be sitting here calmly chatting about my sex life? No. You would have jumped to a very wrong conclusion. The living room would have been a crime scene!" She gestured with one arm when she said this. "I had to let you see us as a couple first, for as long as possible. It was the only way this could have played out." Aria sighed, "I just wish dad woulda given us the same chance you did. Things would be different now."

"I told him he should be here tonight," Ella said. "So we can all talk."

"Talk, not yell?" Aria questioned.

"Just talk."

Aria drew in a breath and said, "Okay." Opening the lines of communication with her father was what she wanted. Even if he said some terrible things, Aria would defend Ezra, and knew her mom would too.

"We're not done yet. You've been seeing a doctor?" She chopped the last potato in half then in half again.

"Yes, Dr. Clark. Ezra's taken me for every checkup. Which reminds me, we've been paying for everything out-of-pocket since it turns out I can't be covered by his insurance unless we were married or living together before I got pregnant. From now on, can I start using our regular insurance?"

"Of course." Ella rested the knife on the counter. "That's another reason you should have told me about this sooner. There's a reason you're on my health plan - the benefits are good." As she turned away, she asked, "How much did you have to pay for the ultrasound?"

"A few hundred dollars…" she said meekly, with annoyance in her voice as well. Of course Ezra had wanted to pay for it all, but she made him let her pay half from her savings. It really bugged him, but he found a way to be okay with it.  
When Aria had hung up with the doctor's office, she told him the figure and said, "I'll bring you the cash tomorrow and we can put it on your credit card."  
"No, don't.. worry about it," he told her. He had almost said "No, don't be ridiculous," but stopped himself.  
"No, I'm paying half," Aria said.  
"It's not necessary," Ezra insisted.  
"It _is_ necessary. She's my baby and if you weren't around, I'd be paying the whole thing." The words felt wrong coming out of her mouth even though it was entirely hypothetical.  
"She's _our_ baby," Ezra corrected, "and if I weren't around, you would have told your parents by now." It felt even more wrong for him to say it.  
"And once I do, you won't have to shell out hundreds of dollars for things I'm technically already covered for." _Assuming they don't disown me_, she thought, but didn't say, and didn't really believe.  
"I can pay your medical bills, it's my responsibility."  
"But you won't have to. And like you said, she's _our_ baby, so it's _our_ responsibility. Jointly."  
This was only the beginning of the argument. Ezra made the mistake of bringing her age into it, saying a high school student shouldn't be having this conversation about insurance coverage and ultrasound bills, bringing to the surface a lot of crap, as she called it, that she thought they'd moved past. She accused him of not trusting her judgment since she was such a 'child,' which he had never called her, and said maybe he wished he'd chosen someone older and more capable of carrying on an adult conversation to procreate with, not pausing to notice she'd used the name they'd picked for the baby only yesterday. He said that's not fair, or true, or rational, and accused her of misinterpreting everything he says. Annoyed by _everything_ he proceeded to say, she booked and killed the hours she planned to have spent at his place, studying, and fuming, at a coffee shop. The '_Trouble in paradise?_' text from A pissed her off even more.  
She had cooled off by the next day, and neither brought up the argument when she came over, instead falling into their usual routine of napping, eating, studying/reading, and simply coexisting. Aria left the pile of twenties on the coffee table without his knowledge before she went home that evening. Ezra found it shortly thereafter and, in the end, after debating with himself, he let her win, knowing he couldn't change her mind about anything once it was made up. At that moment, he finally decided what to do with all the cash which had been piling up in a jar in the back of his sock drawer. Unbeknownst to Aria, Ezra had kept every cent she had ever forced him to take, mostly for baby-related bills and purchases and the occasional meal she insisted on splitting. He went straight to the bank early the next morning and opened up a savings account, to eventually be transferred into the baby's name.

"That's ridiculous. Of course, from now on my insurance will cover you." Ella dropped the potatoes into the water on the stove then twisted the knob to ignite the flame. "Did Dr. Clark give you vitamins?"

"Yeah, I take them every day."

Ella turned to face Aria again. "Did she tell you not to drink so much coffee? I know the jury's still out on the effects, but you really shouldn't be consuming so much."

"I don't. I haven't had a full cup in days. I don't even want it that much anymore." _True._

"So you've been making it every morning and, what, pouring it down the drain?" Ella realized once again what a deceitful child she raised. She took a few steps and tore off a paper towel from the roll.

It pained her to pour that aromatic, sure to be delicious, perfectly good cup of steaming hot freshly brewed coffee into the sink that first time. She almost shed a tear watching it disappear down the drain. "Sorry..."

* * *

[Link to Aria's outfit from 2.12 Over My Dead Body in my profile.

Thanks to ScoutFinch44 and Guest for your comments! ]


	77. Chapter 77

PLL TONIGHTTTTTT! :)

* * *

(Part 2 of 4)

She let it go. "Have you been eating healthy?" Ella wouldn't have resorted to takeout so often over the past few months had she known, not that Aria ever bothered to eat dinner at home anyway.

"Mostly healthy. But omigod, can we talk about the cravings?" Aria asked with enthusiasm. "Did you always want to eat super weird combinations of stuff?" She had wondered since the very first craving if this was something they had in common, but couldn't come out and ask, for obvious reasons. Aria hadn't only been worried Ella might question her odd eating habits, she had been worried Ella might recognize them.

Ella thought back. "No, I just wanted large amounts of stuff I shouldn't have been eating. With Mike, I finished off an entire apple pie once, and the whole can of whipped cream. It was pretty embarrassing, but it tasted so good!" The memories made her laugh. "What kinds of things have you been craving?"

"This peanut has got me eating the craziest stuff." Ella thought it was cute Aria already had a nickname for her unborn child. "I spread marshmallow fluff and tabasco sauce on a leftover slice of pizza once. Ezra couldn't even watch me eat it, it grossed him out too much. ..He gets us whatever we want though. One time he drove all the way to Lancaster because I wanted to try a giant pretzel from a bakery I saw advertised in the newspaper. It was amazing, but she didn't like the smell coming from the diner next door, so I wound up throwing the whole thing up." It took Ella a moment to understand who Aria meant by 'us' and 'she.' Just when she thought she'd gotten used to the idea that her daughter was pregnant, she'd have to get used to it all over again.

"Did you get sick every day? I can't believe I never noticed..." Ella said as she wiped down the counter top, capturing the slivers of peeled skin which had fallen off the cutting board. She had spent a good portion of Aria's weekend away debating with herself whether she was blind or just blissfully ignorant. The answer was neither. Aria, as established, was just that good a liar. But even the best liar couldn't have pulled it off without a lot of luck on their side. For example, she was lucky Ella was a fairly sound sleeper and never heard the toilet flush at roughly 3 am most mornings. She was lucky the symptoms she'd experienced weren't as severe as what other women sometimes went through. And Aria was lucky her parents believed she was entitled to privacy and gave her enough freedom to come and go as she pleased. It wouldn't have worked out so well in any other household.

"Not every day," Aria said. "And it's getting less now that I'm in the second trimester. Or about to be." She'd only thrown up twice over the past 7 days, which was a welcomed change from the norm.

_Second trimester._ It wasn't something she had expected to hear her daughter say. Ella had to mentally adjust to hearing pregnancy terminology come out of Aria's mouth. She chucked the paper towel into the trash, then asked. "Was that the first symptom?"

Aria picked up an orange from the fruit bowl and started rolling it around. "The nausea? Yeah." _Lie._

Ella took a seat next to Aria. "You know, it hurts, that I missed so much, that I wasn't there for you."

"You're sad you missed all the puking?"

Aria had obviously done her homework and was well-informed about pregnancy. Ella was reminded once again of how Aria had kept her in the dark and she wasn't going to let Aria get out of this conversation with a joke. She had also spent much of the weekend wondering where she'd gone wrong if her daughter felt she couldn't confide in her and could so easily intentionally deceive her on a daily basis. It was entirely different than when she lied about her father's affair, something Aria would have preferred to forget herself, and something she could easily keep secret by simply not mentioning it, but this was an active deception about something of life-changing importance. It was worse, and she wanted Aria to understand that lies do hurt. "No," she said soberly. "I'm sad you've been leading this whole secret life without me, and that I hadn't a clue about any of it."

Aria let the orange roll to a stop and rotated about 90 degrees in her seat and genuinely said, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." _Time for some more honesty._ "You don't know how much I wanted to, how many times I wanted to crawl into bed with you and just cry."

It broke Ella's heart to hear this. Frustrated all over again, she said, "Then why didn't you? You know you could have. I'd have been upset, but it would have been _okay_, I would have been there and you wouldn't have been alone."

"I wasn't alone. Do you not understand how amazing Ezra has been? From the first second, he's said and done all the right things. He let me cry on his shoulder and pretend it was yours when I was feeling overwhelmed or upset for no reason. I had some spotting once, it turned out fine," she assured when she saw Ella's lip move, about to speak, "obviously, but I was so scared. _Soo_ scared, and he talked me through it." Ella's broken heart just broke again. Aria had been going out of her mind with worry when she discovered the droplets of blood, and, after crying to herself alone in the upstairs bathroom, finally called Ezra. Once she stopped sobbing long enough for him to understand her words, he wanted to race right over, at midnight, on a school night, secret be damned, but Aria refused because the plan did not involve her parents being awoken in the middle of the night by a distraught Ezra bursting though the front door to comfort a hysterical Aria over possibly losing a baby neither Ella nor Byron knew existed. Stuck in his own little hell inside his apartment, Ezra reminded her spotting is normal, cramping is not, and told her she was healthy and that there was no reason to think anything was wrong. He stayed on the phone with her for hours, reciting everything he'd read about miscarriage, and explaining how it didn't apply to what she was describing, to calm her nerves, then talking to her about anything and everything else, even singing her a song, trying to keep her mind off it, until she fell asleep. The next morning, when everything was fine, Mike asked why she was so upset, having heard her sobs through the bathroom door. She made up a lie, the worst one she'd ever told, and said she was sad about Alison. Mike gave her a much-needed hug which tided her over until she got the hug from the person she really needed it from later that day. "He holds my hair when I puke and always checks if I need anything." Aria left out the part about the back rubs he'd give her and other things he'd do to help relief the tension. "There is nothing he wouldn't do for us. I love him, mom, and the idea you might have tried to cut him out of my life was my worst nightmare."

One of the numerous things Ella took away from Aria's words was the realization Aria and Ezra had been spending far more time together than she had been led to believe. And Aria wasn't the only one lying. Every time she saw or spoke to Ezra, he lied to her face. Despite this, she said, "Aria, what do you think of me?" rather harshly. "Am I not welcoming him over here tonight? Am I not cooking the man dinner as we speak?"

"But you wouldn't have, that's the point. This would not be happening had I told you sooner."

"You don't know that."

Aria didn't know for sure, but the whole plan was based around this belief. Even if her parents had no legal recourse to keep Aria and Ezra apart, they would have made it difficult for them to see each other and would never have treated Ezra with any amount of respect. Every aspect of their relationship would have been under scrutiny, and there would be no dates in the city, or weekend getaways. They might have tried to talk her out of having the baby, something no one would have ever successfully been able to do, and would have turned the pregnancy into something negative, making life unpleasant for everybody. Aria imagined these scenarios all the time and it always ended with her being forced to choose Ezra over her own family and it wasn't something she would let happen unless she did _everything_ possible to prevent it first. "Well, neither do you."

Ella could not say with any certainty how she would have reacted had this bomb been dropped much earlier on. She would like to believe she would have come to terms with it in time, but the truth was, if Aria and Ezra had said 'hey, we're dating and we're pregnant!' that day, the living room might very well have become a crime scene. "I still wish you had told me," she said.

"I'm _sorry, _I _really am_, but I told you why I couldn't, and hope you can forgive me for it."

Ella looked down, elbow on the counter, leaning on the two fingers touching her forehead and took a breath.

"You'll be here for the rest. And you'll be a big part of her life, I promise." Aria meant it. It was never her intention to hurt anyone with her lies, or make her mother feel unneeded. "We do need you," Aria told her, making sure she met her gaze.

Ella nodded appreciatively. It was impossible to turn back time, so she decided, if possible, to not dwell on it. "Why are you so certain it's a girl?"

"Because she is," Aria said without a doubt. "Wouldn't I know?"

Ella laughed and placed a hand on Aria's knee. Tactfully, she said, "But the more you refer to her as a girl, the more disappointed you will be if it's a boy."

"She's not a boy, so I won't be disappointed," she explained.

Ella sat up straighter in her chair and asked, "What does Ezra want?"

"He wants a girl, because she's a girl," Aria replied with an obvious answer to a stupid question. "He believes me, why don't you?"

"I believe you," Ella conceded. "If you say it's a girl, it's a girl." It was no use arguing.

The doorbell rang.

* * *

[To TotalCowGirl, who once asked about scares in Aria's pregnancy, and anyone else who cares, I hope you're okay with the way I did this. I wouldn't have been able to write a whole chapter about the scare, not well anyway, because I don't have a knack for the super dramatic stuff, not the way other authors do. Plus I like planting clues early on and letting things come out in retrospect. So even though it didn't cause any juicy drama, I hope you liked it anyway.

To Guest, thanks for the tip about the italics. I've done that in other chapters, but for some reason it didn't look right here. As long as you guys weren't confused, I'll leave it. Thanks for reading.

To Megan R, Thank you for being the 300th (and 301st) reviewer! I can't even believe it. Thank you guys all so much for the great feedback. It's very inspiring and I really appreciate it.  
BTW, "amazong" is the highest compliment where I'm from. LoL. ;D

To maddie, thank you! I hope long is a good thing because it's gonna get even longer haha. This particular scene is a very long one. It's very talky but you guys seem to like it, so I'm glad. It makes me so happy to hear how much you like this story. So thank you very much for reading and reviewing. ]


	78. Chapter 78

(Part 3 of 4)

The doorbell rang.

"That's Ezra, I'll get it," Aria said, and leaned forward to give her mother a quick hug, saying, "I know I said it yesterday, but thank you for doing this," and left her seat in the kitchen, meeting Ezra at the front door. He held a bouquet of freshcut flowers in his right hand and a wary look on his face. Instead of inviting him in, she shut the door behind her and stood out on the stoop with him. "For me?" she asked.

"No, for your mom." Ezra was taught a good guest never shows up empty-handed. Though he wasn't sure what the etiquette was in this situation. Flowers most likely didn't cut it. Perhaps he could have found a 'sorry I got your kid pregnant' card next to the 'sorry you got traumatized' section at Hallmark.

Aria stuck out her bottom lip.

Ezra pulled out one of the yellow daisies and snapped the stem in half. "This one is for you," he said as he tucked it behind her ear. He held the rest of the flowers safely out to the side when she stood on her toes to buoyantly kiss him hello. "So is it safe to go in?" Ezra asked. "Who's home?" He peered around as if he might learn the answer from the doorframe or a pane of frosted glass.

"Only mom for now. Before we go inside, I wanted to tell you I told her you wanted to wait 'til my 18th birthday," Aria informed him, "in case that ever comes up in conversation."

"Wait for what?" he asked, confused.

"What do you think?"

"Oh," Ezra said, laughing. "What kind of conversation would that come up in?" _Some kind of interrogation_, he thought, and hoped that's not what he was walking into.

Aria stuck her thumbs in her back pockets and said, "I also told her you wanted to ask for permission to date me until I convinced you otherwise."

"You know, I considered that. In the very beginning. After that first class, I considered marching straight to the principal to explain the situation and then straight to your parents to ask for permission to see you again. But it would have been a surefire way to get fired and then _never_ see you again. Not that I ever would have talked myself into actually doing it anyway. And then after… after I kissed you again, the option was off the table." Aria listened patiently to this ultimately pointless tangent, which he may have launched into to delay having to go inside.

"Good, cuz that would have been really stupid." She briefly contemplated what would have happened if he had done that. They wouldn't be standing there right now, that was for sure. He would probably be 'that hot guy she almost hooked up with,' someone she would think about from time to time in terms of 'what might have been.' "I also told her we didn't sleep together until I said I loved you, and you said it a few days later."

"2 things. First, when is that _ever_ gonna come up in conversation? And second, do you tell your mother everything?" That was a pretty personal detail about their relationship and not something he would make known if he had the choice. The fact that he never actually said the words until their rendezvous after the dance occurred to him later that evening while he was thinking things over as instructed. While doing this thinking, he couldn't figure out how he had managed to let it happen. The only explanation he could come up with was that his love for her was a given, that she told him she knew he loved her and he was so busy saying it in his head, he somehow forgot to say it out loud. Still, he regretted not saying it first, and had decided to make it up to her somehow. The amount of trouble he'd be in wouldn't change whether they continued sleeping together or not, he had reasoned. And the wounded look on her face when he said it couldn't happen again was enough to destroy him. Toying with her emotions like that seemed more wrong than giving in, to something he wanted just as much as she did. He remembered what she said about making the most of the time they had together and he decided to do just that. The opportunity presented itself after a covert PG striptease she put on for him at school. He had intended to make their first real date a memorable one. And did.

"In general, yes," she said. Giving Ella that detail made it seem like she was truly opening up. It wasn't something she would ever fabricate and Aria could tell it had the desired effect. "We can't act like we have anything to hide. Just keep it in mind and stick to the plan."

"As you wish," Ezra agreed, as he always did.

Aria let them inside and pulled Ezra into the kitchen. "Look, mom, Ezra brought you flowers."

"Hi, Ella, these are for you," Ezra said, handing her the bouquet.

"Thank you. They're lovely," she said. "I see he got you one as well," she added, brushing Aria's hair with her fingers.

Aria smiled. "Here, sit," she said, pulling out a stool for Ezra. Ella opened a cabinet looking for a vase. "I gotta pee," she said, "Unlike the morning sickness, it seems this little perk won't be going away anytime soon. Be right back," and left the room. If her mother weren't present, she would have mentioned the other little perk she didn't foresee going away anytime soon as well.

Ezra was slightly annoyed she left him alone with her mother so soon, but couldn't hold it against her. "It smells good in here. Do you need help with anything?" he asked, slightly antsy in his seat.

Ella was keeping an eye on the stove. "No, I've got it covered. Would you like anything to drink?"

"No thanks, I'm fine," he said, to be polite, not wanting to Ella to go through any trouble on his account.

Ella went to the fridge and pulled out a pitcher, then took a glass from the cabinet and set it down in front of him. "I made iced tea. Have some," she said as she poured.

"Thank you," he said, and took a sip, not hiding his uneasiness very well.

"Ezra, you can relax. Nothing's going to happen. I'm past the anger stage and moved on to acceptance, got it?"

He nodded half-heartedly, then when Ella turned her back, picked up the orange sitting there and began rolling it back and forth between his hands about 6 inches apart, needing to eliminate the nervous energy somehow.

Ella filled the vase she had found earlier with water at the sink. "Aria and I talked. About a lot of things. You haven't made a single false step. She told me you even wanted to ask for permission before accepting her offer for a date. Neither of you ever mentioned that before." Besides that movie night, Ella and Ezra had had the opportunity to chat when Ezra would pick up Aria for dates. Byron wouldn't acknowledge him, of course, if he was even around, but Ella would talk to him in the foyer while Aria put the finishing touches on her hair, or piled on some last-minute accessories. Ezra would tell her where they were going, usually the movies or a restaurant in another town, and when they'd be back. It was all very pleasant.

_Because she just came up with that particular lie today. _"Because she laughed at me when I said it." He was sure she would have. Ezra's right hand ceased the motion of the stray fruit so he could make a serious statement. "...I need you to know, we, _I_, _never_ intended for this to happen."

Ella stopped arranging the flowers in the vase to say, "I know that. And I know you love her." _If I ever had any doubt, I don't anymore._ "You can stop worrying."

"I love her so much, I didn't know the meaning of the word until I met her." He almost slipped up, then quickly recovered. "You know what I mean, until one day I realized, I was in love with her," he said like it was an unexpected revelation. Ezra continued babbling, drawing from the story Aria had drilled into his head ad nauseum, so Ella wouldn't pick up on his slip, only think he was nervous, which he was. "After the first few times she asked me out, we had already been getting to know each other, and I wouldn't admit to having any feelings, but when she was finally able to convince me to go out on a real date, I realized, I was already in love with her. And I never saw it coming. The right thing would have been to ask you first, but if you had said no," _who am I kidding? _when_ you said no,_ "I don't think I would have been able to handle it." By the end of this little speech, Ezra realized he had been kneading that orange into the counter so hard, it left behind a stain of spray from the pores in the rind.

"The past, is in, the past," she said slowly, as if to remind herself. "There is something I have to say though. I meant to say it the other day and I mean it. The lies have to stop. She explained why she lied, and while her reasons may have _some_ validity, in _some_ sense, I can't tolerate any more blatant lying. From either of you," Ella said sternly, staring him in the eye.

Not quite meeting her gaze, focusing instead on her lips purposefully set in a straight line, he said, "Okay," though it was a promise he couldn't make. "I hated_," hate,_ "lying to you, but I was," _am_, "terrified of what you might do when you found," _find,_ "out. I know I'm a coward."

"I wouldn't say that," Ella said as she bent down to view the chicken baking through the window of the oven. Ezra used this opportunity to hastily clean the counter with the bottom of the short-sleeved plaid button-down shirt he wore. "If she had wanted to tell me right away, I know you would have gone along with it."

"Yeah, I would," Ezra readily admitted, "I wouldn't have been any less terrified though," and placed the orange back in the wooden fruit bowl where it belonged.

"Am I really that scary?" she asked turning back around.

"Uhh… when you want to be." It was true Ezra was scared of what her parents might say, but more than that, he was afraid of what they might do. If they were somehow able to keep him from Aria and the baby, it would kill him. He had actually had a few nightmares about just that, vague images of looking at them from behind bars, or seeing them in a room he couldn't find a way into, though he never told Aria. Ezra was overcome with such a sense of relief when Ella left his office without lobbing any threats or accusations. For the first time, he was able to get past that fear and start truly believing the plans he had been making for the future might actually come to be. Even when he was talking Aria down the night of the scare, telling her they were having this baby and that they would be happy together, the three of them, he didn't completely believe it himself, not because he thought they were losing the baby, he was fairly certain she was overreacting, though at the time wouldn't have put it past the universe to deal them such a blow, it was that he could see the endless struggle they would be stuck in with her parents, and that was _without_ the whole truth of how their relationship began being out in the open. _With_ that damning information out, he could only imagine the dismal kind of life he'd have been able to lead. Now, Ezra did believe in their chance to be happy, though he was aware it didn't necessarily mean smooth sailing ahead.

"Good answer," Ella said audaciously and Ezra remembered where Aria got some of her spunkiness from. "..Tonight, we're just here to eat, and talk. You can relax. Really," she assured him.

Aria skipped back into the kitchen. "Look," she held out her hand, "he gave me this ring."

Ezra had been relaxed for exactly six seconds. "For her birthday," he said quickly as Aria said, "Now I can finally wear it around the house."

"It's very nice," Ella said, examining the antique finish and design carved into it. She had missed Ezra's interjection. "What's it for?" she asked, releasing Aria's hand. If they said for their engagement, Ella was going to begin an entirely new conversation and her calm and accepting attitude would surely crumble before the end of it.

"Her birthday," Ezra said again, once again drowned out by Aria's statement, "To show me how much he loves us. I didn't want to scare you by wearing it before you knew."

"How thoughtful of you," she said sarcastically to Aria. "It's a lovely gift," she told Ezra. "You have good taste."

"Yes he does," Aria concurred, wrapping an arm around his waist and putting her head on his shoulder. They all understood she was referring not to the ring, but to herself.

* * *

Link to Ezra's shirt in my profile.


	79. Chapter 79

Byron never showed for dinner. When Ezra said it would be rude to start without him, Aria said it was rude of him to not show up and cleared his empty plate. Ella carried on with the conversation in his absence and the three discussed everything that needed discussing over the nice meal Ella prepared. Ezra made it clear that he wasn't going anywhere and that Aria was his priority. He and Aria convinced Ella that the baby was unplanned but not unwanted and already loved, not that she needed any such convincing. They talked about big picture stuff like college and living arrangements as well as the smaller details such as doctor visits and finances. They all decided to maintain the same level of discretion they had been all along. Ella and Ezra cared about Aria's reputation, while she cared about theirs. It made sense to keep things relatively quiet.

Aria and Ezra told Ella some funny stories, mostly food-related, and as a result, she found herself referring to the baby as 'she.' At one point Ella said if 'she' grows up with half Aria's penchant for deception, the two of them will have their work cut out for them and they all laughed, though Aria did speak up to defend herself, saying she considered herself a pretty good kid despite all the dishonesty. She didn't cite this example specifically, but even when she was partying hard in Iceland, she still called home if she was going to be late, did her homework, rarely talked back to her parents, and helped out around the house. All things considered, she could have given her parents a much harder time growing up.

The dinner wasn't all business; it was actually enjoyable, for all parties involved. Aria started to think that this could become their new version of normal.

Towards the end of the meal, Aria sat with her elbow up on the dining room table, spinning the ring mindlessly around the tip of her middle finger. Ella sat across from Aria while Ezra sat between them to Aria's left. Ella and Ezra were laughing about something he'd read in the paper about an author they both enjoyed, but Aria had no interest in. She glanced down at Ezra's watch and said, "The girls are picking me up to go night swimming in 20 minutes. This big conversation we're all supposed to have is obviously not happening tonight." The conversation was supposed to have included Byron and gotten him to sit and realize Ezra's not such a bad guy. It may have been asking too much from one dinner, but it would have been a start.

"Night swimming?" Ezra asked at the same time Ella said, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not? There been many shark sightings at the Rosewood Community Pool lately?" she said distractedly.

Ignoring her sarcasm, Ella said, "It's gonna be chilly tonight."

"So I'll bring a jacket," Aria volunteered, turning her face towards Ella. "The water is warm."

"What about going to Spencer's?" Ezra suggested. "She's gotta have a pool behind that giant house of hers." He knew for a fact Spencer had a pool. Over the weekend, the girls talked about how they spent practically the whole summer in it 2 years ago.

"They haven't opened it yet," she said, finally rejoining the conversation, then creasing her forehead at him. "Why is that safer? There are no lifeguards in Spencer's backyard."

She had a point. Ezra asked the last question he was going to ask. "Are you sure you want to go?"

With a stony gaze, Aria said, "I spent the whole weekend swimming in the _ocean_ with the _girls _and I didn't drown once."

"That's not funny," Ella said. Ezra's face agreed.

"Emily will save me if I start to go under," Aria said, spinning the ring around faster, growing impatient.

They both glared at her for continuing to crack jokes.

"You two are a piece of work. I'm going." She pushed away from the table, sliding her chair backwards and went upstairs.

After a second, Ezra said, "She'll be fine." He wasn't going to do the overprotective thing. There would be no guilting her out of having fun with her friends, unless their activity of choice was, perhaps, bungee jumping, or something similarly crazy. He stood and picked up his plate and Aria's and brought them into the kitchen with Ella close behind carrying her own. He scraped the remnants of food into the trash and went back to the dining room to get the glasses, leaving Ella to begin loading the dishwasher.

Aria came back into the room. "Ezra, would you help me with something upstairs? The window is stuck."

He looked at Ella, whose back was turned to him, then at Aria, and said, "Sure."

Ezra followed her upstairs into her bedroom. He hadn't been there since that night she walked out on him. They were in such a different place back then. It was strange to think about.

He knelt on the window seat and twisted the handle. The window opened easily. He assumed he was at the wrong one, then he noticed the air conditioning was on. He turned to face her.

"I don't need help with the window. I need help choosing a swimsuit," she said with a familiar glint in her eye. In front of her, she held out two hangers, one holding the black string bikini she wore the second day of their trip, the other, a teal number with molded cups and ruffles.

Ezra growled under his breath. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"Does it look like I'm kidding?" Aria's fingers were already lifting the black, asymmetrical knit tank over her head, taking the white cami she had on underneath with it. She chucked the wad of fabric at him, sitting stunned.

"You get one minute," he said. "_One. Minute," _he repeated, and held up one finger.

Aria didn't waste any time. She was already shimmying out of her white jean shorts and kicked them over to him. "Which one?"

"That one." He pointed at her feet where the teal 2-piece lay. He hadn't seen her in that one before.

Aria hooked her thumbs in the grey hipster boyshorts she wore, pulled them off where she stood, then flung them at Ezra, who watched her and shook his head at his shameless and hedonistic girlfriend. She stepped into the teal bottoms with the cute flounce, and did a quick little wriggle for him with her hands on her hips before she pulled the matching grey bra over her head, not bothering to waste time with the clasp. She swung it around in the air 3 times before letting go, sending it flying to his feet.

Aria picked up the halter-style swim top and held it to her chest. She lifted her hair up off her neck with the other hand and sat on Ezra's knee. "I need you to tie it." His fingers nimbly tied the hanging strings into neat bows, despite their being desperate to trace down her spine and rip that swimsuit right back off her. "Thank you, love," she said and winked at him over her shoulder.

"Your minute's up."

"Wait just one sec," Aria said hopping off his lap. She picked up the off-white crochet lace Betsey Johnson cover-up off the bed and slipped it over her head as Ezra stood, still watching. It cascaded down around her hips, and she posed for him, one arm behind her head, letting the long kimono-type sleeve wave through the air at her side.

"You're gorgeous. Now I'm leaving," he said as he walked past her. 'Gorgeous' didn't begin to describe her. Long dark hair, slightly lighter now than it was even 2 weeks ago due to spending time in the sun, fell in loose waves down her back, the teal bathing suit, still visible through the lace, brought out the green flecks in her eyes, she was light on her feet, like a weight had been lifted, and her cheeks looked extra rosy today, courtesy of the pregnancy. 'Radiant from head to toe' was more accurate.

"No, I need you to help me apply this sunblock," she said, hastily picking it up off the dresser.

"It's nearly dark out, you don't need sunblock," Ezra said as he backed toward the open door.

"Then how about this lotion Hanna got me?" Aria grabbed the green tube with French writing Hanna had given her to prevent stretch marks. "Lotion" sounded a lot sexier than "stretch mark creme." Aria popped the cap and squeezed a dollop onto her fingertips. "It's French. _De France_." She touched her chest moved her hand in slow circular motions, rubbing the lotion in and dipping her fingers tantalizingly under the neckline of the coverup, giving him all sorts of ideas. "_Ça sent bon, oui?_" His eyes followed her every move and she tried to close the gap between them. "Do you wanna rub it in? You can do my back," she said, twisting around a bit and holding his gaze. "_Donné un coup de main, cherie._"

It always got him when she spoke French. Sometimes she would come over and he would help her study for an exam in French, since he'd completed all 4 years of the language in high school, continued with it for 3 semesters in college, and had been to France. Not much actual studying would get done though because she'd start inserting the dirty words he'd taught her into the practice sentences, which would lead to a lesson on the proper technique for French kissing, which would inevitably lead elsewhere. 'Help me with my French homework' became code for sex. Halfway out the door, he forced himself to say, "Goodbye..." thinking _I _will_ get even..._

She took a step forward. "At least give me a parting kiss. _Un petit bise,_" she said holding up two fingers together to prove just how small a kiss she wanted.

He acquiesced to her request, giving her a chaste kiss on the lips. "Have fun," he said, then got the hell out of dodge.

* * *

[What Aria is supposed to be saying in French:  
"It's French. From France."  
"It smells good, yes?"  
"Lend me a hand, dear."  
"One little kiss."  
I say _supposed to_ because I was relying on Google translate for those sentences. If they are incorrect, please let me know and I will fix it. Thanks.

Links to both outfits in my profile.

Also, I just wanna make it clear, she wasn't giving them the finger at the dinner table haha. When I reread it, it almost sounds like that, but no, she's just doing it because she's getting aggravated by their coddling and she plays with the ring a lot.

I give each chapter a short title so I know what's what on my computer. This one is saved as 79Trickery. Hahaha, fitting?

To Esme, thank you!

To Maddiebieber101, hope you're not too disappointed I sort of skipped over the actual dinner. :/

To Notinyourlifetimehoney, thanks for the reviews. I feel you on the textbooks. Textbooks are the worst... LoL. At the bottom of each chapter should be a little box you can check to get story alerts, which will send you an email every time I publish a chapter. Otherwise you could wait a while and read everything at once, that might be more fun anyway. :) Good luck with your assignment. BTW, your little shout-out should go up Sunday. ]


	80. Chapter 80

(Part 1 of 2)

"Hey," Emily said to Aria as she slid into the front seat of Emily's car, a beautiful Toyota she won at the homecoming dance last year.

"Hey." Aria dropped the purple beach bag with a giant butterfly cutout design and ruffled trim containing a towel and a sweatshirt, should she need it, on the floor by her feet. "We're not waiting for Hanna?" she asked when Emily put the car in drive.

"No, she's meeting us there. She's coming from Mona's. They wanted to hang out before Mona leaves for a cruise with her family," Emily explained.

"Oh, okay." Aria buckled her seatbelt. "What'd you do today?"

"My mom needed some help in the garden earlier. We planted some marigolds in the back," Emily said and Aria bobbed her head, listening. "And I told her Paige and I are hanging out tomorrow... as more than friends."

"You told her? What'd she say?"

"She seemed cool with it, and was probably way more surprised than she let on." Pam had stood up to Mr. McCullers last year too, when he accused Emily of getting special treatment because she was gay.

"I was pretty surprised when you told us," Aria said. "But you guys are cute together. Has your mom ever met her?"

"Uh huh," Emily nodded, with her eyes on the road, "at swim meets and stuff."

"So I'm sure it'll be fine," she reckoned.

"Yeah." Emily wasn't too worried. Her mom had been pretty accepting of Samara when they were going out. "What about you, what'd you do today?"

"I just had dinner with my mom and Ezra," Aria told her.

"How'd that go?" Emily asked, figuring pretty well based on her tone of voice.

"Not bad actually. Now that everything's out in the open, or almost everything, I feel like I can breathe again," Aria said, "like there's space in my head for more than keeping the secret. It was mentally _exhausting_ to always have my guard up at home, planning every single move I made so they didn't suspect." Even when she was not in the mood to pretend, she would still keep up the act and go through the motions for the greater good. And everything had gone almost perfectly according to plan so far. Aria was really looking forward to not lying to her family for a change, at least not about the baby.

"It must've been really hard," Emily sympathized. Aria had told the girls about all the precautions she'd been taking to keep the pregnancy a secret. Emily knew what it was like to keep a big secret from her parents, but couldn't imagine keeping one which manifested itself with physical symptoms. She still couldn't believe Aria had gotten away with it.

"Yeah," she said with a relieved tone and spun the imaginary ring around her finger. She'd left it home so it didn't get lost at the pool.

"Your dad wasn't there?" she asked, noticing the lack of his name being mentioned earlier.

"No, he was supposed to be but he never showed. I don't even care. Dinner was a lot more pleasant without him." Joking around and laughing was far preferable to walking on eggshells, waiting for the wrong word to set him off. But she was lying when she said she didn't care. "Did I tell you what he said last week?"

"You said he said 'terrible things,'" Emily reminded her. Aria hadn't wanted to rehash the gory details during their fun weekend away. Or at all.

"Yeah. I've never seen him like that before." She put her head back on the rest. "I don't even want to think about it. He wouldn't look at me this morning, or yesterday, or the day before." Aria's words didn't convey how hurt she actually felt every time her father averted his gaze or left the room when she entered it.

"He probably just needs time," Emily tried to assure her. She figured her dad would react similarly if the situation were reversed.

"I know." Aria hoped Ella would be able to talk some sense into him. "Anyway, dinner was nice. I told mom and Ezra you'd save me if I start to drown, k?" Aria said, turning to Emily.

"You got it," Emily laughed, glancing over.

"They were like tag-teaming me with questions. They didn't want me to come. You'd think I'd said 'we're gonna go knock over a liquor store' the way they were like '_do you think that's a good idea?_' '_are you sure you want to go?_'" Aria mocked, changing her voice to mimic her mother's, then Ezra's, exaggerating their tones for comedic effect.

Emily chuckled. "That's silly. Didn't we spend half the weekend in the Atlantic Ocean?"

"So I reminded them!" Aria exclaimed with a 'thank you for being sensible!' undertone and both girls laughed.

Neither of them spoke for a minute. Emily watched the road and they listened to the song coming through the speakers from the CD player.

Then Aria asked, "Did I give you a copy of the sonogram? I can't remember."

"Yeah, Spencer gave me one on Saturday," she replied. "I pinned it to my bulletin board when I got home the other day, and my mom nearly had a heart attack this morning when she saw it."

"Oh really? Sorry!" Aria laughed. "Guess I shoulda put my name on it or something.. I wonder if Hanna's mom has seen it yet."

"Yeah, she has. I was there when Hanna told her," Emily said. Both girls had traipsed into the kitchen Sunday night to find Ashley in front of her laptop with a salad. "_Hi, girls, have you eaten?_"  
"_Nope, not yet_," Hanna said and reached into her purse. "_Hey mom, look_," she said and waved around the sonogram.  
"_What is that?_" Ashley asked, getting out of her chair to get a closer look. "_Hanna are you kidding me!_" Emily's eyes went wide and started laughing through her nose. _That's one way to tell her_, she thought. "_What is this! Why do you have_ this!" She grabbed it out of her hand,_ "Whose is this?"_ and held it up._ "I _know_ it's not yours. You are _not_ pregnant,_" Ashley stated as if saying it out loud could make it be true, surveying her daughter who was wearing a disturbingly loose tank top.  
Her attention turned to Emily who backed away waving her hands back and forth, laughing, "_not mine!_"  
"_Hanna, start talking_." The grin on Hanna's face only got bigger. "_This is _not_ funny. Tell me right now what this_ is."  
"This," Hanna said, taking back the photo,_ "is an image, created by high frequency ultrasonic sound_ _waves_," she had done her homework,_ "of an 11-week fetus," _drawing it out as long as possible, "_currently residing, in Aria's uterus._"  
"_Aria_," Ashley repeated. _Thank the lord, _she thought.  
"_It's true_," Emily confirmed.  
"_Yep, it's a picture of Aria's lovechild. Don't you think she looks like a frog?_" Hanna asked, pointing. "_No one else sees it._"  
"_No, Hanna, we see it_," Emily said, "_but we have the _sense_ not to _say_ it_."  
"_I knew it!_" she exclaimed, eyes wide.  
"_Aria's pregnant?_" Ashley asked. "_Wow_."  
"_She sure is,"_ Hanna said._ "Isn't that awesome?_" purposely instigating her mother, though would soon regret it.  
"_Awesome Hanna? Don't you go getting any ideas and romanticizing this. I think you need a refresher course in how _not_ to get pregnant_," which she proceeded to give to Hanna right there in the kitchen and made Emily stay for despite it's non-applicabillity.

"What'd she say?"

Emily steered the car around a corner and said, "She said 'wow.' And then launched into a diatribe about safe sex. Pretty much what you'd expect." She would let Hanna give her the play-by-play some other time since she'd probably tell it better anyway.

Aria could imagine it. "What'd your mom say?"

"After I picked her up off the floor? I told her it was yours, and reminded her I'm gay."

Aria snickered and said, "So she has no..."

"No way," Emily scoffed. "Do you think she'd let Toby hang out in my room if she had the slightest clue?" Pam was not Toby's biggest fan at first, but had actually become one of them after getting to know him and seeing how polite and hardworking he was, not the troubled and dangerous kid she'd always thought him to be. Her tune would have changed drastically if she'd ever suspected he was anything more than friends with her daughter.

Aria shook her head no. "What else'd she say?" She knew Pam must have had an opinion on the subject.

"Not too much. She asked if you were keeping it, and I told her, duh, yes, if you're handing out sonogram photos to all your friends, and she asked about the father. I told her his name is Ezra and he doesn't go to our school. And that I've met him and he's nice. Is that okay?" Pam also said she wasn't surprised, the way the Montgomerys run their household, and asked if they would be getting married. Emily said they weren't planning to and quoted scripture at her, _"Judge not lest ye be judged." _Pam shut up.

"Yeah. Just pretend you don't know his last name if she asks," Aria said, always in secret-keeping mode.

The girls pulled up in front of Spencer's house right on time. They waited about 2 minutes, then Emily texted her to let her know she was there.

"Who is this?" Aria asked about the music playing.

"The New Amsterdams," Emily replied.

"I thought so, but I don't know these songs." Aria was familiar with the band because Emily liked them. She thought she'd heard all of their songs over the years.

"Oh, I don't know why. They're not new. This is their second album."

"Hm."

Emily drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and Aria checked out her fingernails, chipping around the edges. She waited 'til the song ended before saying, "Should we go get her?"

"No, look, here she comes," Emily said, seeing Spencer emerge from behind the wooden gate at the end of her driveway wearing a coral maxi dress over her swimsuit, carrying a navy and yellow Ralph Lauren beach tote.

Spencer slid into the backseat and said, "Sorry I'm late. Just putting out a few fires in there."

"What's wrong?" Emily asked. "Are your parents fighting?" she guessed. "Is Melissa home?"

"No, I mean literally. The microwave caught on fire," she said, buckling her seatbelt.

"Omigod, was it a big fire?" Aria asked, looking for the roofline of the house out the side window. She couldn't see it from where they were they were parked and didn't know what she was expecting to see anyway. Would Spencer have joined them if her house was still on fire? That'd be a no.

Spencer replied, "It would have been if my dad hadn't come home early or been so quick on the draw with the fire extinguisher."

"It's a good thing," Emily said, and pulled away.

"How did it start?" Aria asked.

"The _thing_ is _defective_," Spencer said with more hostility than Aria expected. "Sorry. I was just arguing with my dad about it. He didn't believe me when I said I set it for one minute and 52 seconds, the prime amount of time for the maximum number of kernels to pop without starting to burn." Aria knew all about Spencer's little popcorn formula. God forbid she set the microwave for an even 2 minutes, she'd never hear the end of it. "I went back upstairs and forgot all about it because I was checking out what college courses I could take later this summer and next thing I know I hear the fire alarm so I run downstairs and see my dad through a cloud of black smoke trying to put it out. I cannot describe how bad it smelled."

"Please don't," Aria said. The smell of burning lasagna was all too fresh in her memory. Popcorn would be worse.

"I think I'm turned off popcorn forever," she said, making it her last word on the subject, for Aria's, and by extension, all of their sakes. "Anyway, I was arguing with my dad, trying to convince him I didn't set it for longer than 2 minutes. The stupid microwave is defective. I think he believes me now cuz as I was leaving, he said he's gonna sue the manufacturer, and the distributor and probably the individual factory workers in China who put it together and also the guy at the store who sold it to him last year."

The other girls laughed. "Was there any damage?" Aria asked, distracted by a thought which had just entered her mind, prompted by nothing in particular.

"Some. It didn't seem too bad, but I didn't stick around very long to assess." Aria reached into the bag by her feet and pulled out her phone as Spencer said, "Maybe Toby can fix it if it is bad. He had to pay to get his truck fixed and he's got his eye on this loft downtown so he could always use the extra cash for rent an-" Spencer stopped talking when she noticed what Aria was doing. She had tugged at the V-neck of the coverup she wore, exposing the top half of her swimsuit and was holding the phone out in front of her, trying to line up the lens at the right angle to capture what would be an eyeful. "What are you doing?" Spencer laughed from the backseat.

"Showing Ezra what he's missing," Aria answered casually, attaching some words to the picture message.

.

Aria: Miss me?

.

"What, you asked him to come?" Spencer asked, thinking that would not be the smartest thing to do.

Aria rested the phone in her lap and said, "No."

She waited for more of an explanation then asked, "Do you do that a lot?"

"Once or twice. He loves it," she replied, and picked up the phone again. When Ezra was away at a conference the night of the fashion show, Aria sent him a series of photos of partial body parts - the corner of her red lips in a pout, the hem of a blue satin dress over her thigh, some black lace stretched over her hip, a bra strap seductively hanging off her shoulder and a bit of side boob. Ezra had a nice surprise waiting for him when he finished presenting his paper and paid very little attention to the presenters who went after him.

.

Aria: Shall I drop by later to finish what I started?

.

Spencer and Emily laughed, both thinking the same thing - no wonder they're having a baby.

* * *

Links to Aria and Spencer's beach bags and their outfits in my profile.

I guess I wasn't clear enough in the last chapter. Ezra gives Aria one minute because he doesn't want to be up there too long because Ella never gave him permission to go. If it was completely innocent, it wouldn't matter so much, but it was _not_ innocent and any second she could come up the stairs and see them and that'd be so rude to be invited over her house and then sneak upstairs to fool around with her daughter. He's treading pretty thin ice as it is. But he's also not gonna pass up an opportunity to watch his girlfriend undress, so one minute would be an acceptable amount of time to take to fix the window (which was never broken) and Ella wouldn't be suspicious.

Please do ask questions if you find something confusing. I wouldn't want anyone to miss anything because I made it too complicated or unclear.

Since I skip ahead, I'll tell you Ezra goes back downstairs, says he's gonna get going and thanks Ella again for dinner and for being so understanding. Then he goes to the store, which you will understand by the end of the second half of this scene.

To MaddieBieber101: Thanks very much. I'm glad you liked it. But I just wanted to point out there is no engagement. That line was about Ella thinking the ring could possibly be an engagement ring and that she would not be happy about it. Have fun at camp! Hope the next chapters don't disappoint.

To Notinyourlifetimehoney: Thanks. :) Hope your assignment works out.

To GilmoreGirls945: Remember after the movie night chapter I told you that wouldn't be the last time Aria does that to him? The last chapter is what I was referring to. And she's not done neither. ;)

A HUGE thanks to all of my readers and reviewers! If you haven't already, leave a comment, it would mean the world to me.

If anyone is still reading this, haha, and you are a Wrencer fan, there is a really great story called **Playground Love** by LaTerreAuxEtoiles you should check out. It's one of my fave stories on this site.


	81. Chapter 81

(Part 2 of 2)

Emily changed the subject, saying, "I was thinking of asking for an application to be a lifeguard at the pool. Do you think they'd hire me?"

"I don't know, different places have different age requirements," Spencer said.

"I think I saw a guy from school working there last year," Em recalled. "He was a senior, he could have been 17."

Aria didn't know anything about it. She started whistling low under her breath a tune which had gotten into her head somehow, just a handful of notes she repeated trying to remember where she'd heard it before, but the music and the girls' talking and her own other thoughts made it difficult.

"But he might have been 18," Spencer pointed out. "I know the club will hire you if you're 17. You have to go through a training program though." She had flirted with a lifeguard there once a few years ago, or rather, he'd flirted with her while she stood there being awkward. The 17-year old boy told her he went to a Sheraton Prep School, which was how she had come by this information.

.

Aria: I'll let you undress me..

.

"I'm sure you have to do that anywhere," Emily said. "They're not just gonna hire anyone who can swim."

"Yeah," she agreed. "You should apply to work at the club too, it'd be fun, we could hang out." Emily didn't love the idea of working at Spencer's country club. She felt more at home at the public pool, having spent a good amount of time there over the years, but since she wasn't sure if they'd hire someone her age, she decided she'd apply at the club if it didn't work out, because one way or another she was getting a job this summer and lifeguarding was preferable to other options for a number of reasons. She didn't have a chance to say as much though because Spencer already changed the subject, asking Aria, "What are you whistling? It doesn't even match the music."

She barely realized she was still whistling, at least not loud enough to be bothering anyone. "I don't know, does it sound like anything to you?"

Emily turned down the music. "Whistle it again."

Aria whistled the upbeat little tune again, tapping the phone against her knee in tempo.

Emily listened intently, but had to say, "No, I don't know it."

"Nope," Spencer agreed. "Are there any words?"

"I can't remember. Nevermind," she said and turned the music back on, just as the song was ending, and texted Ezra again, still waiting for a response.

.

Aria: I'll be all wet.

.

Aria could hear the CDs change inside the console. The next song was different than the previous ones, with more instruments in the background and more of a rock sound. "Who is this now?" she asked Emily.

"Oh, this is The Get Up Kids," Emily explained. "It's the same lead singer, but their sound is a little different."

"Hm, I like it," she said distractedly, wondering what more she had to say to get an answer from Ezra.

.

Aria: We can try to break a new record..

.

"Are you sexting Ezra again?" Spencer asked, leaning up from the backseat, trying to get a glimpse.

"Nope," Aria lied. Was it a lie? She wasn't sure if it really qualified as sexting.

Spencer assumed she was lying. Aria put the phone down and Spencer sat back, asking, "Did you guys do that during class?"

"No," Aria replied. "It was against the rules."

"Since when did either of you care about breaking the rules?" she asked, skeptical of her answer.

"No, not the school rules," she explained, "we had to come up with ground rules for our behavior during class, so it wouldn't be obvious we were screwing _after_ class." It momentarily occurred to her how wrong that sounded, but she dismissed it.

"_Were_ you? You never said." In fact, Aria purposely dodged the question any time it came up and avoided talking about sex in regard to her own relationship. She would frequently tell them 'Ezra's helping me with my French homework after school' and never so much as hint at what she really meant by that. The less the girls knew at the time, the better, should they have ever been questioned about it.

"What was I supposed to say? 'Ooo yeah, Mr. Fitz fucked me so hard last night, tell you all about it when the bell rings.'"

"Aria!" Spencer exclaimed, never expecting to hear her say anything like that in response to what could have been a 'yes' or 'no' question. Emily took her eyes off the road to look over at Aria, who didn't even seem to realize she'd said anything shocking, and started laughing. Her quick wit failing her at the moment, Spencer exclaimed, "That mouth!" unable to think of anything else to say. It was the second time in less than a week the girl known for her dry, sardonic humor, the girl who had a snappy comeback for _everything, _was rendered virtually speechless by her tiny friend's shameless remarks. After Aria's hilarious declaration to Hanna Sunday morning, after Spencer, with moderate difficulty, swallowed the bite of bagel, chugged half a glass of water to clear her throat and finally stopped laughing, Hanna finally found her words and said, "_Did she really just say that?" _Spencer responded, "_She _really_ just said that!"_

"What about it?" Aria asked casually.

"You.. kiss your mother with that mouth?" It was the best she could come up with.

"I do a lot of things with this mouth," Aria stated. _Things I could be doing in just a few hours if he would just answer his damn texts!_

"Aria!" Spencer exclaimed again and Emily could not stop laughing. "I can't even believe..." Spencer said. Emily purposely slowed the car down in case Aria made any more shockingly blunt statements and thought, Hanna _wishes_ she were here right now as Aria's phone finally buzzed under her hand.

.

Ezra: You still have a curfew

.

"What? Sorry, I'm in a weird mood," she said. "Spence, could you be my alibi if I stay at Ezra's tonight?"

"Do I even wanna know?"

"I'm guessing no."

"Then sure.." she laughed, "I know the drill." Spencer knew it wouldn't be necessary to hole up in her bedroom with a DVD to provide Aria's alibi, but she thought it might be nice to anyway, as long as Jake Gyllenhaal would keep her company.

"Thanks, you're the best," Aria said as her thumbs sped across the little keyboard texting her mother.

.

Aria: Spencer wants us to sleep over, can I stay?

.

"So what were these ground rules?" Spencer asked, curious. She wondered if they had made up a little handbook. _How not to get fired for screwing your student. By Ezra Fitz. Page 32 Paragraph 4c Wherein the student, as defined in sub-paragraph 12, shall not send messages, electronic or otherwise, to the teacher, as defined in sub-paragraph 13, between the hours of 7 35 am and 8 25 am Eastern Standard Time, or face one or multiple penalties, as outlined below on page 47, sub-section 1-8._

"You could probably guess," Aria said. "No touching, minimal eye contact, no special treatment, no arguing, no sexting. During class. The rest of the day was a free-for-all," and Ella's response popped up.

.

Ella: Sure, but call me when you get there and don't overdo it at the pool.

.

Spencer approved of the rules, knowing without them, they'd surely have been caught, _and_ busted. "What about the play? Wouldn't that break some of those rules?" The arguing one in particular, if she remembered correctly.

.

Aria: K, thanks.

.

"The play was... not one of my best ideas," Aria said as she texted Ezra.

.

Aria: I got it covered, see you later ;)

.

"I remember," Spencer said, recalling the tremendously awkward moment when Aria called Mr. Fitz 'Ezra' in front of everyone during rehearsal.

"Yeah, I learned my lesson." After she quit, Aria determined that she and Ezra did just about everything well together, except work together. It added unnecessary complications to an already complicated situation. She also resolved not to be so careless in the future, though she did wind up mistakenly sending that, luckily tame, text to her mom, which, in the end, actually kind of worked out in her favor.

.

Ezra: Challenge accepted

.

Aria was suddenly glad she'd taken a nap that afternoon.

"I know we're practically there, but do you wanna stop and get some frozen yogurt?" Spencer asked the girls. "This new place just opened up on Second Street, it's all self-serve and they've got a ton of toppings to choose from. Toby said it was really good." If Aria let her, which was iffy at best, Spencer would make her sundae for her and load it with nuts and berries instead of candy and hot fudge.

Aria _did_ have a weakness for frozen yogurt. It was her ulterior motive for the bike ride on Saturday. Besides getting the ingredients for Toby's cupcakes, Aria had been dying to stop at the frozen yogurt shop they'd driven past on the way to the beach house. "Sounds good, but I just ate dinner, wh- why don't we go after instead?" Aria had stuttered when she read Ezra's next text.

.

Ezra: I bought massage oil.

.

"Yeah," Emily agreed. "I'd rather go after too." Emily said something else about having better times on an empty stomach, or maybe something about limes, or fines... Aria wasn't listening. Instead, her attention was turned to the series of texts which started popping up on her phone one after another.

.

Ezra: Or perhaps we could use something edible and I'll lick it off

Ezra: Real slow

Ezra: Whipped cream?

Ezra: No, cake frosting

Ezra: NO. Chocolate sauce.

.

The texts about drizzling and painting and licking and sucking continued to trickle in. Aria hardly noticed when they pulled into the parking lot and Emily turned off the engine because she was so absorbed by the obscene descriptions of Ezra's plans for the evening. A few lines were in French, the same lines she had used to get him all riled up once or twice before. There were some colorful messages containing words like 'straddle' and 'rubbing' and 'grinding' and 'tongues.' Never before had he been quite so bold. She bit her lip when she read the words, 'when I get you on your back' and bit it harder when she read the text containing the words 'every inch' and harder again seeing 'taste your sweet.' Aria finally had to put the phone away when she got to the part about 'screaming for hours' because she was starting to get looks. He certainly had a way with words. Now Aria understood how Ezra felt all the times she texted him in graphic detail about what she was wearing, or not wearing, and what she planned to do to him once she got him alone and what she'd be doing until then. She sensed, correctly, that this was payback for the stunt she pulled after dinner and was well aware of how much she deserved it.

* * *

[Emily has a sticker for The New Amsterdams in her locker. I listened to a few songs, they're ok, but I personally like the Get Up Kids better, from what I've heard. I include this stuff partially as filler, but also I feel like it says a lot about them what music they listen to. In my head, Aria and Ezra like all different types of music and listen to it frequently. Emily and Toby have their favorites and don't branch out from that as much. Spencer listens to whatever she likes, but doesn't care about music quite as much as the others. Hanna listens to whatever's popular. Caleb listens to a wide range, old and new, but mostly in a rocky folksy bluesy indy genre haha. Have I put too much thought into this? I think yes.

To Notinyourlifetimehoney, "no wonder they're having a baby" was your little shout out. Hope I didn't build it up too much. :)

To everyone else, it just goes to show leaving comments pays off. You never know when something you say might inspire me to add something down the line. ]


	82. Chapter 82

This one's a little pornographic. Fair warning. It's the longest chapter I've ever written and there was no good place to break it, for soon-to-be obvious reasons. So enjoy it since it's gonna have to hold you over a few days while I try to make the future chapters at least half as good. I may be setting myself up for failure here. We'll see. I hope you like chocolate, cuz there's a lot of it.. Bon appétit! And Happy PLL Day!

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Aria knocked on Ezra's door instead of using her key because she wanted the miscreant right there in front of her when she started punishing him for the torture he'd put her through earlier that evening. He heard the frenzied knocking and answered it with a superior smirk she only caught a glimpse of before flinging herself at him, dropping her bag to the floor without a thought. "That. Was. Not. Nice," she told him in between sloppy kisses, beyond primed for this marathon of sex he'd been promising her. Ezra managed to kick the door shut before she steered them toward the sofa, which he refused to topple backward onto no matter how hard she pushed him. "What is wrong with you!" she finally yelled, balling up her fists in frustration, practically stamping her feet like a cartoon character throwing a tantrum.

A self-satisfied grin sat upon his face. "We're doing this my way," Ezra stated. "Go over there," he instructed, walking away from her, pointing at the bed. A clean white sheet was draped over the whole thing.

"Oh my god, you weren't kidding," Aria realized out loud when she spotted it. She had thought all this talk of chocolate sauce was a game, a game to get her all hot and bothered, which had worked, to a preposterous degree. She didn't think he was serious, because who does that? _We do apparently,_ she thought. It wasn't the first time they'd introduced edibles to sex, but the last time was mostly a big haze. Aria remembered yelling, and laughing, an attempt at spanking (not for them), and some borderline acrobatics on both their parts. _Good lord this is gonna be fun_, she thought, and noticed the music playing from the speakers on the desk, fluid synth-y guitar sounds she had never heard before. It wouldn't have been unusual for them to turn on a Sigor Ròs record to get into the mood, though lately, they were always in the mood. This was a little different, but she liked it. As Aria tread across the room, she also noticed a handful of tealight candles lit inside drinking glasses and recycled jars scattered on the coffee table and island, diffusing a warm glow around the otherwise dimly lit apartment.

"I never kid," Ezra said as he punched some buttons on the microwave. She stood by the side of the bed and began to lift the coverup over her head.

"Don't," he said. "You said I could undress you." She had indeed, so she obediently let the lace fabric fall back down around her hips with a pleasing swish. Aria felt like he was giving off mixed signals when she compared his autocratic attitude to romantic atmosphere. _He's not gonna make this easy,_ she realized.

The microwave beeped and Ezra pulled out a granite bowl of warm chocolate sauce, half of a mortar and pestle set he used to grind spices, most recently dried habanero peppers because Aria liked everything spicy. Her eyes went wide when she saw it and smelled the luscious aroma. Ezra dropped a stout paintbrush into the bowl and Aria thought, _he really prepared for this_. In fact, he had. After picking up the massage oil he'd wound up putting away for another day, he went to the grocery store and spotted the cans of whipped cream in the dairy aisle which triggered this whole idea in the first place. He proceeded to add a bar of dark chocolate and a pint of cream to his purchase, then went out and bought that sheet and picked up a paintbrush suitable for the job, all while she secretly smoldered with anticipation. He used the opportunity to try something new and melted the chocolate himself, following the recipe to a T because there was no backup plan if he screwed it up. Then he did a shot of whiskey and made a playlist while he waited patiently for her arrival.

Ezra met her by the bed and dipped a finger into the warm liquid and held it up. Aria brought it to her mouth sucking off every last drop while staring him down, her heart rate already starting to speed up. Ezra withdrew his finger and set the bowl down on the bedside table. He crouched down in front of her and slid his hands slowly up the sides of her body, sweeping the beach dress up over her head and tossed it towards the sofa, where it just barely landed without slipping to the floor. He reached over her shoulder, pinched the end of the string holding the top of her swimsuit up, and drew it out slowly, but it didn't fall down. He did the same with the other bow, freeing her ample bosom, discarded the damp item, then said, "Sit."

Aria did as he said and he knelt before her and traced a finger lazily up her leg until he reached the teal bottoms, inserting a single finger under the middle panel, grazing with a knuckle the wetness he had started creating hours ago with only his words, and tugged this other damp item leisurely down her legs. _This is taking forever, _she thought, though did enjoy when he took charge, so she allowed it. Ezra stood before her and unbuttoned his plaid shirt one button at time while she watched, drumming her fingers impatiently. Then he wrenched his pants down and stepped out while she enjoyed the view. "Taking your good sweet time, huh?"

"You deserve it," he told her and picked up the bowl of chocolate. "On your back." Aria flopped backward with an enthused smile then saw him flick a finger signaling her to move further backwards and rotate around so she lay in the proper direction. "Open your mouth," Ezra said as he straddled her and held the paintbrush up in the air, letting a thin stream drizzle down into her mouth.

"Mmmm," Aria murmured and licked her lips where the velvety smooth mixture had splattered. The flavor was heavenly. Ezra dipped the brush again and drizzled it over her chin then down above the channel between her full and perky breasts, leaving little loops and spirals of dark chocolate strewn across her milky skin. He took in the attractive sight of her naked below him and flicked his eyes at her, asking a question telepathically. She had told him once, "_They bother me more in the morning,_" adhering to his request to keep him updated. Sometimes the boobs were off-limits and he wanted to check before proceeding with his plan, because her comfort, and pleasure, this evening was the only thing on his mind. He talked a big game, but he was taking this challenge seriously.

A mild head tilt gave him the go-ahead to swirl the paint brush over one nipple, then the other. Ezra first held the end of the brush to his forehead and furrowed his brow, then painted slowly, methodically, making a pensive face like he was an artist analyzing his brushstrokes. She kinda wanted to punch him for it, but couldn't help shuddering with enjoyment while the bristles softly skimmed across the sensitive areas.

He meandered backward, knelt above her legs, and dipped the brush again, scraping the excess liquid off on the thick edge of the bowl and painted the letter N on the lower right-hand side of her flattish stomach. It tickled for a second. Aria lifted her head a little and peered down, gathering her damp chlorine-scented hair and twisting it up into a ball behind her head, thinking she wished she'd had the sense to tie it back once she realized how messy they were about to get. The next letter was an A. He reloaded the brush, painted U G H, and she got the idea. Being able to easily read text upside down was a talent of hers, which came in handy reading bedtime stories to babysitting charges, and also, evidently, at times like these. He completed the word with a T and Y, then underlined the whole thing for good measure. "Naughty?" she read as a question.

"Yes you are," he answered as a statement and walked backwards on his knees again. Ezra lifted her ankle then painted the sole of her left foot with wide solid strokes. It tickled like mad but Aria could not yank her leg away from his strong grip. He licked it all off slowly and she yelled, "that ti-i-ckles!"

"I know," he said unapologetically, and started sucking the silky chocolate off her big toe, which felt surprisingly good and made for a rather erotic sight, increasing her desperation that much more.

Ezra took a good amount of "paint" on the brush and slid it in one solid stroke from the top of her foot all the way up to her hip, then followed the exact same path with his tongue, leaving behind a long stripe of saliva. He licked away each individual letter, and all the places his tongue had touched were set ablaze as he moved upward to remove all of the chocolate from her heaving chest. She was burning in one place more than any other and couldn't focus on anything else while he nibbled on one rigid nipple then the other for what seemed like forever. "Ezra.." she whimpered, tempted to start touching herself if he didn't hurry the hell up. "Please.." she requested, holding his head, arching her back slightly every time his lips tugged at her flesh. His goal was to work her up real good and it seemed to be going quite well, but he wasn't done. He grabbed the paintbrush again and wrote a new word across her abdomen. With her hands on her forehead, she watched him do it, in agony, and though she was screaming "_Are you fucking kidding me!" _on the inside_,_ read the word aloud with a flat tone. "Patience." It was taking everything she had not to bolt upright, flip him over and ride him 6 ways 'til Sunday, but she knew he'd never allow it, not in the mood he was in now. Aria cursed her tiny body knowing she never _really_ had the upper-hand unless he let her have it.

"Is a virtue," he explained, finishing the proverbial phrase. _Too easy. _Aria fumed at him, and at herself for having fallen for his little set up. "Hold still," Ezra said and painted little swirls on each of her cheeks, the tops of her ears, the tip of her nose, beneath her jawline, and finally over her lips, which she automatically licked away. The he set the bowl down a short distance away and kissed her. She eagerly kissed him back, tongues wrestling, gripping the hair at his temples pulling his warm body down onto her. The word painted across her stomach smeared against his and she raised a knee, sliding her ankle up and down the side of his leg. His left hand crawled down her body and found the little mass it sought out with his thumb.

_Finally,_ she thought and took a breath when his lips moved to her cheek. It felt _good_ and continued to feel good during the minutes he spent rubbing it while simultaneously licking all the chocolate off her face, until he stopped. He continued sucking on her neck while rubbing her thigh, squeezing it, running the other arm under her back and around to play with her chest again while she wriggled beneath him. Any second now he was going to shift over and merge their bodies together, satisfying the undying need burning at her core. Or so she thought. But then his hand traveled back to the place between her legs and she gave into the pleasurable feelings though it wasn't quite was she had been looking for. "Ezramm..," Aria trailed off as the twinges of bliss built. "Ezra," she repeated, trying to get his attention while he nipped at the skin under her chin, and trying to concentrate really hard, but he was making it _impossible._ "I'm gonna," she sucked in a breath, "I'm gonna," and swallowed hard, teetering on the edge, "I'm gonna come!" she squeaked as the smallish tremor rolled through her.

"I know," he said against her throat and she could hear the smugness in his voice.

"I could, have done that, myself," she told him with detectable resentment in her shaky voice, and would have a long time ago had those texts rolled in while she was alone.

"This is far from over," Ezra stated and nibbled on her earlobe. Leaving the paintbrush alone, he reached into the bowl and coated his fingers in chocolate. He entwined their digits, messily transferring the now room temperature substance to hers, then, as he sucked on her fingers, took some more and dragged his hand down her body slowly, starting at her lips and ending the long uneven streak at its final destination. He kissed her again, resisting the strong urge to bury himself inside her heat, which would have been incredibly easy to do at this moment, as he felt her arms squeezing around his back encouraging him to do just that.

Ezra followed the trail downward, sweeping his tongue over every drop of the divine substance, intentionally leaving some behind in the depression of her belly button until his head was between her legs, kissing everywhere in the region except the place which ached for his touch the most.

He was doing it again, working her up until the inferno bordered on painful. When he finally did start running his tongue along her folds, which tasted sweeter than ever coated in the molten chocolate, Aria sighed heavily and squirmed. He was setting her on fire as the tip of his tongue fluttered like a candle flame and moved rapidly around the sides of her clitoris, above and below it, as a flame would flicker. Her moans grew louder and her fidgeting increased, until he absurdly took a break from stimulating the little bud, starting back up to her navel. "Oh my _god_ Ezra you can't stop!" Aria yelled and pushed on the top of his head, but it remained firmly above her midsection.

He reminded her, "We're going for a record remember? I know what to do," and stuck his tongue into the little nook licking out all the chocolate which had pooled there, infuriating her while at the same time increasing the amount of sexual tension in her body.

"But.." she protested. "Please..." she begged. This _had_ to be illegal, she thought. Surely denying her at this moment went against the Geneva Convention and broke every law in existence regarding torture. When he did finally return, the fire deep inside grew in intensity. And he fanned that flame with his skilled maneuvers as she called out, "Aaahhhhg. AaaaahhHHH," until she peaked. _That's more like it._ "Ooohhh," Aria sighed, "Thank you," and lolled her head to the side.

"We're not done yet," Ezra informed her as he crawled back up to her face and said in her ear, "You're gonna take every inch, remember?" as he nudged himself inside her tightness. The flame ignited again, "Oooh," Aria moaned as he slid his arms underneath her. "I remember.." and he pushed a little further. "I want it," she said. "I want it," and he advanced even further this time. "Give it to me," she said, locking eyes and he thrust deeply, matching pace with the propulsive beat of the current song. She met each piercing move with a maneuver of her own and started to forget the other things she was going to say to provoke him.

"You have it coming," he told her.

"I do," Aria agreed. "I.. I..." One of his favorite things was watching her literally lose her train of thought and hearing her words suddenly become high-pitched squeals of nonsense as he pushed all the right buttons making it happen.

Each time he pressed in, it felt like a bubble inside was inflating, and the louder she screamed, the tighter he would grip her shoulders and the harder he would push until the bubble was stretched to its limits and forced to burst. "Oh. Ezra!" she cried at that moment and convulsed as a new warmth flowed through her.

She basked in it for half a second. "We're still not done," Ezra whispered in her ear, then nibbled behind it and massaged one breast with the palm of his hand, having ascertained that maintaining contact was key. She was coming down, until he unexpectedly said, "Roll over," and gave her the space to do so while he reached for the bowl of chocolate which miraculously had not tipped over as a result of the not insignificant rocking of the bed just a minute ago. What he had planned would technically be a first. They had tried it from behind once before, a while back, but midway through, he decided he wanted to see her face and turned her over underneath him. It had to do with the anonymity feeling wrong, like he was just using her for sex, and tomorrow morning she'd be sitting one row from the window and 3 seats back in his classroom studiously taking notes he dictated about the theme of morality in the assigned novel. It felt more than hypocritical.

Her smooth, firm, and appealing derrière now visible, Ezra dipped the brush, held it a few inches above her skin and drizzled a heart shape over each cheek while Aria twisted her head, trying to get a good look, and saw a partial view of him filling in each heart with the brush then descending to eat it. She couldn't manage to see anymore once she felt his teeth scraping again her backside and didn't much care because the burning had returned, scorching now, and she had to have it quenched again.

The closer he got to the split between cheeks, the more she squirmed, as he took his time lapping up every tasty drop. She pushed back on her elbows, shamelessly raising her hips in the air above her feet, trying to speed things up. He leaned back on his legs, resituated himself and, though he hadn't been planning to do this, and she hadn't quite expected him to either, licked her folds, then started teasing her clitoris with one hand while licking her walls from an entirely new angle. Aria rocked backwards, feeling his tongue swirling around and his fingers delicately rolling the little nub, setting off fiery sparks deep inside her. Her face buried in the mattress, it muffled her screams as he pushed her over another edge, an _much_ higher one.

Ezra found himself with a brand new erection, the one he'd been counting on to help achieve his goal, rose to his knees and didn't wait for her to come down at all before entering her, crazed by how tight the fit was, holding onto her hips as he thrust forward and immediately started hitting that sweet spot he was aiming for. Aria was holding her own face, unable to stifle a single scream, wondering if this is what going crazy felt like every time they collided and he pulled her into him. She was crying out, practically pulling out her own hair since there was nothing else to grab as he embedded himself even deeper and thrust even faster. Though neither of them could hear to the music beyond the sound of blood rushing past their own eardrums and her outcries, the textured keyboard sounds with layered hypnotic vocals provided a befitting, if a little sluggish in pace, backdrop to the prolonged repeated beating of pressure against her g-spot, sending intense recurring pulses of bliss through every extremity. That bubble, now stretched to its absolute limit, burst with a distinct incredible _pop_, or at least it felt that way to her. Loud unintelligible sounds sprung from her voicebox as the tremendous rush of pleasure radiated through her whole body, and his body too, rigid as he lost control and climaxed riotously.

She crumpled to the bed in a stupor and he fell next to her, pulling her in close, holding a hand over her rapidly beating heart as they tried to catch their breath. He affectionately laid soft kisses on the back of her neck, feeling satisfied he had made good on every one of his promises even if they hadn't broken the record.

This time the contents of the bowl had spilled and a puddle of chocolate pooled on the sheet, serving its intended purpose. Neither of them noticed or cared while wrapped up in this loving embrace.

Eventually, after her heart rate had leveled out, Aria spoke. "We made a mess." Their bodies were smeared with sticky sweat mixed with patches of chocolate, which had gotten under her fingernails and into her hair as well.

"That was the idea," Ezra said.

Twisting her head over her shoulder, she said, "You have the best ideas," snickering under her breath.

His face lit up and he nuzzled her shoulder with his nose. Though he could have fallen asleep, just like that, he thought better of it. "Okay, let's get cleaned up," he recommended, releasing her, allowing her to sit up, "unless you want to go home with bits of chocolate all over your face and," he pulled a clump from her hairline, "plastered in your hair," and wiped it off onto the sheet.

"You want me to go home?" Aria accused, getting off the bed, knowing he wanted no such thing.

"No, never," he responded without even thinking, turning around to ask, "don't you have to?" He thought "I've got it covered" meant a good excuse to stay out late, not sleep over.

Aria shook her head, smiling with her lips pressed together.

"You can stay?" Ezra asked as if he just found out Santa Claus really did exist.

"I can stay," she smiled and pulled him toward the bathroom. "Spencer agreed to be my alibi, as usual."

"Thank her for me, would you?"

Once inside, Ezra caught his reflection in the mirror, seeing traces of brown distributed all over his face, hair completely disheveled, then spotted his thumbprints just above Aria's hips and other various streaks all over her back, thinking, _we look a fine mess_, as they stepped into the tub. He twisted the knob, adjusting the temperature and pressure until they were being pelted with a steady stream of warm water. He let her stand in front as not to block the flow, and grabbed the bottle of peppermint-scented body wash she had stocked the shower with instead of picking up his own. He squeezed some into his palm and passed it to her. Aria did the same, replaced the bottle on the shelf, then turned to face him and rubbed his chest with the gel. "I think there's more on you than there ever was on me," she said and tried to remember how they'd managed it, but it was all a bit of a blur. Her hands turned him around and lathered his back, washing away all the remnants of their fun evening which she did not think should come to an end just yet.

The invigorating scent filled the air and all the smudges they were covered in began to disintegrate.

"The neighbors hate it when I run the shower this late," Ezra thought out loud just before she caressed his butt then spun him back around.

"We won't be long," Aria said and ran her hand down low, intentionally brushing against him. "It appears that we're on an uneven playing field again." As was often the case.

"You don't have t-" he started to say, then his brain caught up with his mouth, or perhaps it was the other way around. In any case, he shut the hell up as she wrapped her hand around him, moving it gently.

"I think _I'm_ done for," she continued, "but you, I know you've got it in you," she said and felt him swelling in her hand. She tightened her grip and before she knew it, he was standing at attention. Ezra backed into the tiled wall and let out a short breath from the back of his throat. Little soap bubbles formed under her fist as it moved up and down his hardened length. Aria pressed herself against his chest and watched him trip over every breath he tried to take and thought she saw his eyes start to roll back when her thumb grazed the tip, though couldn't be sure since his eyes were now closed. She could feel the pulsing under her hand and began to feel the familiar throbbing in her own nether-regions, thinking, _this is just ridiculous_, and for once resolved to not give into it.

She sped her motions and he moaned low under his breath. What she didn't know was that this sound had come from a place of brief indecision, that is, until Ezra had her pinned against the back wall, partially sitting on that blessed little ledge, lifting her leg and penetrating her in one swift motion. The warm water assaulted his back as he hitched her leg up even further and thrust up into her again and again hardly giving her a chance to express her extreme surprise because she was suddenly overcome with that fiery sensation the tingle in the pit of her stomach had built into. Aria blinked away the water droplets which splattered on his shoulder and bounced into her eyes and tried to hold on to his shoulders since the ledge was rather slippery and her feet were no longer touching the ground. Ezra could feel her walls beginning to tighten and hastened his thrusting, pulling out almost completely, then driving back in with force. "Aah-, aah-," she panted, "eee-, eee-, ee-e, eeee," she wailed and by the end, only high-pitched shrills were escaping from her lungs, void of detectable vowels or any coherent thought. He came in 3 severe surges, clawing at the tile and squeezing her thigh as her muscles constricted and pulsated around him.

Once she was able to speak again, she said, "Well you're just full of surprises."

He should have known this would be the inevitable conclusion when they'd stepped into the tub together. There was no such thing as a chaste joint shower when it came to the two of them, even after that trial of endurance they'd engaged in earlier, though they did manage to finish up without any more funny business.

Ezra found a pair of sleep pants then rolled up the chocolate-stained sheet and stuffed the bundle into a black trash bag. He put the bowl in the sink, blew out all the candles and turned off the music, now playing an intoxicatingly harmonic song by the band Toby had introduced him to over the weekend, an instant favorite. Aria emerged from the bathroom with wet hair, body wrapped in a towel then changed into a cute green and purple nightgown she kept in his bottom dresser drawer. Then she went into the kitchen, opened the glass canister next to the coffee-maker, pulled out a banana biscotti laced with almonds and dried cherries she had made at home yesterday, and bit into it with a satisfying crunch.

"I am soo hungry," she said with her mouth full, pushing a crumb threatening to fall back into her lips.

"We did just burn a lot of calories," Ezra pointed out.

She took another bite and asked, "D'you wan one?" Although Aria was perfectly willing to share, she'd be lying if she said she hadn't brought them over mainly for herself.

The slight nod implied, "Sure," and he stepped forward to take a cookie from her hand across the island. "These'r'eally good," Ezra said whilst chewing.

Aria nodded in complete agreement. "Don't get rid of that," she said, spotting the open trash bag at the base of the island and finishing off the last bite. "We might wanna use it again one day." After all, he'd had all the fun getting to use the paintbrush and eat the chocolate. She'd barely gotten any.

He'd already thought of that, but couldn't exactly carry it downstairs in an ordinary laundry basket lest he pass a neighbor or two in the hall; the smell of sex was probably discernible a mile away.

Ezra met her on the other side of the counter, lightly pinched her face, planted a kiss on her lips then stated, "I can't wait to see this face," the face that somehow looked even more beautiful devoid of a single stitch of makeup, "when I wake up tomorrow." Aria wrapped her arms around him and sighed into his chest, then she led him towards the bed. They turned down the covers and got in together, adjusting the pillows into a comfortable position. She took the right side, same as she'd done those few times before, and nestled in next to him thinking how nice this felt since it didn't get to happen often as she drifted off.

While he held her close, he took a tranquil breath and said, "I get to keep you," as if the realization just struck him.

"Of course you get to keep me, you fool," she would have told him, but she was already fast asleep.

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The songs playing, in the order I mention them:

Delicate Steve - Wondervisions

Washed Out - Feel It All Around

Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek

School of Seven Bells - Prince of Peace

A lot more songs play in between, just assume they are others from the same artists, mainly the first two. Links in my profile.

Recipe for chocolate sauce anyone? Also in my profile.

And Aria's nightgown in my profile too.

P.S. I'm not sure if it still prevents you from doing this, but if you are unable to leave a comment because you already left one for this chapter (when it was the Caleb chapter), try leaving it for 83. Thanks for reading.


	83. Chapter 83

Happy PLL Day!

[The song in this chapter is All The Pretty Lights by Andrew Belle. It's actually on the Pretty Little Liars soundtrack. Check it out if you haven't heard it. I take no credit for the lyrics. ]

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A few days later, after Aria had returned home from school, the doorbell rang. Aria rushed downstairs to get it, but her mom beat her to it. Caleb stood on the stoop with a guitar strapped to his back and a slouchy knit cap on his head. He wore a green henley tee, ripped jeans, and combat boots.

"Hi, Mrs. Montgomery," he greeted her with his trademark laid-back smile.

"Caleb. Come in," she said politely, though was not expecting to see him, and hadn't since before the end of the school year, usually sitting with his laptop in the courtyard or talking in the hall with Hanna and Aria and the other girls, or any number of other people. Caleb seemed to know everyone.

Caleb stepped inside the door and stepped out of his boots, sliding them into the corner next to the door with one foot.

"Hey Caleb," Aria said, then to her mom explained, "I invited Caleb over, we're gonna go upstairs to work on a song." She wore a tight black and red spaghetti strap tank and black leggings with horizontal slits all up the sides. She hadn't worn anything so fitted or low-cut in weeks and was happy to be able to dress comfortably in her regular clothes before she was unable to fit into them anymore. Today was the day Ella realized Aria had been intentionally dressing more modestly of late. If Aria had worn this outfit a month ago, she definitely would have noticed the changes, particularly in the bust area. As far as the belly went, there was none to speak of yet. She looked like a skinny girl who had perhaps eaten a bit too much for lunch, a little thicker in the middle than usual, but not obviously pregnant by any means.

Ella started to say "Why don't-" but Caleb had starting saying, "Whoa, you're even shorter than I remember," teasing Aria when he realized even in socks he towered above her by nearly a full head. Aria usually didn't entertain company in her bare feet, but she'd forgotten to put her shoes back on upstairs, and Caleb could hardly be considered company anyway.

"Watch it," she shot back immediately. "I could take you out by your ankles from down here, you wouldn't even know what hit you." Aria had a comeback for just about every short joke anyone could make, except the time Mona asked "Are your legs always that short?" How does one respond to that? With an equally sarcastic question of course. She ran through some possibilities in the moment. '_Is your hair always that flat?_' No, lame. '_Is your shirt always that ugly?_' No, she actually liked Mona's shirt. '_Is your mouth always that rude?_' No, that didn't even make any sense. '_Is your face always that stupid?_' Aria couldn't think of anything halfway decent, not in time for it to pack any punch anyway. About 5 minutes later she realized Mona was the exact same height. If she hadn't taken so much time to think, she could have shot back, '_Are yours?_' or '_You're one to_ talk.' Even _'__rude much?_' would have been better than dead silence. _A missed opportunity,_ she had lamented backstage of the fashion show._  
_

Caleb took a small step backward, feigning fear. He would have said, "I'm shakin' in my boots," had he still been wearing them. Aria spun away, joking, "That's right, you best be scared." He laughed and started to follow her.

"Why don't you work on it in the living room?" Ella suggested, able to get the whole sentence out this time.

"We might be loud. And it's more comfortable upstairs," Aria said, already on the first step of the staircase.

"And there's better acoustics," Caleb added from close behind.

"Alright. Door stays open," Ella instructed.

Aria stopped short. Caleb almost ran into her. She whipped her head around and asked, "You're serious?" incredulously.

Ella nodded.

"Okaaayyy…" Aria said, humoring her.

When they got upstairs, he asked, "What was that about?"

"I have no idea…" Aria said as they sat down on the floor, Aria with her back against the window seat and Caleb leaning on a cube-shaped ottoman in front of her. He stood the guitar up next to them and spotted a portable keyboard plugged into the wall and propped up against the desk as if she'd recently been using it.

"Doesn't she know? About everything?" Caleb asked and gestured to her lap.

"Yeah." Then Aria remembered and kicked herself for ever forgetting. "Ooh, I maayy have told her we were mooore than friends…"

"You did? Why?" he asked, baffled.

"Not _now," _Aria clarified. "I told her that we used to be. It was… a convenient lie at the time…" Aria hadn't expected to become such good friends with Caleb when she made up that lie. She never expected it to become an issue. "I'm sorry, does it bother you?"

"No. I don't mind.." Caleb said, still slightly confused.

Lowering her voice, Aria explained, "No one can know how long I've been with Ezra. I had to pretend I was with someone last year and had a good reason to keep it secret."

"Oh, okay I get it. I don't care what your mom thinks," he said with an indifferent shrug of the shoulder.

"Thanks," Aria said. "I've been working on a new song."

"A new one? We haven't even finished the first one." Not that he was complaining. The first one was turning out better than he'd imagined and was a lot of fun to work on.

"I know, but I wrote these lyrics," she said, handing him a notebook which had been sitting on the floor beside her, "and even came up with a melody, sort of." Caleb took the notebook from her, but left it on his lap without looking at the page. "I know that's your department, but-"

"Let's hear it," he cut her off, folding his arms, intrigued.

"Okay. May I?" she asked, reaching for the guitar.

"Can you play it?" Caleb asked, surprised.

"No, but Ezra showed me a few chords." While at the pool with her friends last week, Aria figured out she must have made up the tune which had been stuck in her head all day, then understandably forgot all about it when she got to Ezra's, incredibly turned on by the filthy texts he had been sending. The morning after their very palatable and near-record-breaking late-night activities, the same morning Aria miraculously woke up in his bed and Ezra finally accomplished the mission which had proven difficult to execute in a house full of people the prior weekend, Aria asked Ezra to teach her the basics, so she wouldn't lose the tune. She picked up the main chords pretty quickly and then worked on her song while Ezra made French toast. That afternoon, Aria returned home wearing Spencer's clothes and Ella was none the wiser.

"Doesn't seem like you need me here at all," he joked and pretended to get up from his cross-legged position.

"No, I definitely need you!" she protested and pulled him back down by his shirt. There would be no song without Caleb. He had the uncanny ability to take a basic melody and unrefined lyrics and make them gel into an actual song, with real depth. _He_ had the vision. She was just helping him achieve it.

Ella appeared in the doorway, eyeing them. "Would you guys like a snack?"

"A snack? What are we, 5?" Aria said sarcastically.

"Alright…" Ella said, turning to walk away.

"Actually, do we have any grapes?" Aria asked, sheepishly, prompting her mother to turn back around. She'd forgotten how much she'd been craving them earlier until just then.

"Sure," she said kindly. "Caleb?"

Aria spoke up before he could answer. "Wait, no, do we have any orange jello?" This craving appeared out of thin air. "No, orange cheesecake?" she amended, excited by the thought. Aria knew very well neither of those things were in the refrigerator downstairs or anywhere in the near vicinity, but thought her mother might be kind enough to go get her some if she put it out there.

"No we do not," Ella replied, laughing at the rapid range of emotions which Aria sped through in the last 10 seconds.

Aria _hrmph_ed, contemplating how she could get her hands on these desserts. An evening drive might be in order for a slice of cheesecake, she considered, and speculated, "I bet Emily would make me some orange jello..." knowing Pam usually kept the pantry pretty well-stocked. She had plans to hang out with Emily tomorrow after school and after Emily completed her first lifeguard training session in the morning. The community pool had an opening and the manager was impressed with her skills both in and out of the pool. Pam was visiting Wayne in Texas, so Aria would have to wait to see what she had to say about the baby.

"What, your baby-daddy wouldn't make you some orange jello?" Caleb was pretty sure Ezra would bake her the cheesecake if she asked, though it might be inedible.

"Well, I'm seeing Emily first," Aria said and decided to text her later with the request.

"So you'd like the grapes or not?" Ella asked.

"Yes," she decided. The hankering for grapes hadn't gone away, it had only been temporarily pushed aside by the new desires.

"Caleb?"

Twisted around, he said, "Grapes sound good, thanks."

"Okay," Ella said and left the room.

"And lots of bacon!" Caleb pretended to call after her.

"Shhhh!" Aria laughed, covering his mouth with her hand. "You weren't there, remember?" she whispered.

"So many lies to keep track of…"

_Don't I know it. _Aria strummed a chord on the guitar and began to sing a rather upbeat song.

.

_There's a beating in my chest  
__And it's seeming to suggest  
__That before this day is through it might go my way_

_And so I sit back in my seat  
__I scribble down something that's sweet  
__About a boy, a girl  
__An endless stretch of scenery_

_Oh  
__And I wanna remember this night  
__And how my words never came out right  
__It's just my patience that keeps me alive  
__Just like all those pretty lights  
__Just like all the pretty lights in the sky_

.

"That's all I've got so far," she said, letting the guitar rest in her lap between them, anticipating his reaction.

"I love it," he said and she smiled. "It's a lot happier than the other one. You just came up with it?"

"Over the past few days." This time, the melody came first, then the words.

"She's been humming it constantly," Ella said from the doorway. She came inside and handed Caleb a bowl of red grapes, freshly rinsed, still on the vine.

"Thanks," he said.

"Thanks," Aria said as well. "That's because I was trying to work out the tune."

"I wasn't complaining, I think it sounds lovely," Ella said.

Aria tilted her head and smirked, "Thanks."

"Are you comfortable on the floor like that?" she asked. "Wouldn't you rather sit on a chair?"

"No, I'm comfortable right here. This is what we do," Aria explained, "We sit on the floor and sing. It works for us," and ate a not-too-sweet, not-too-tart grape.

"Alright," Ella conceded.

Caleb leaned forward, practically on top of Aria, and procured a cushion from the ledge behind her. "Here, at least lean on a pillow," he said as he shoved it behind her back. Aria scooted forward to make space.

"Happy?" she said looking up at her mother.

Ella contrived a smile. "Call me if you need anything," she said as she left.

Aria waited until she heard her mother's footsteps on the staircase before saying, "She's been really overprotective since," she glanced down, "the baby. If it gets any worse, I'm gonna have to remind her I've been taking care of myself for 3 months now, I'm not gonna do anything stupid."

"She just cares about you," he said, "You're lucky," and they went for the same grape, which Caleb let Aria take.

"I know," Aria said, contrite. "I'm sorry if it sounds ungrateful." Aria knew what Caleb had been through, being dumped in foster care and moved from crappy foster family to crappy foster family practically his whole life, and complaining about her mother, who had always been there for her no matter what, even under the most trying of circumstances, was probably not something he cared to hear.

"No, don't worry about it," Caleb said then popped a grape into his mouth. He had come to terms with his situation, even though it sucked to think about the mother who had abandoned him, and had stumbled into a surrogate family who actually wanted him. The Gottesmans were dorky to the core, but Caleb loved them for it. Lucas joked that Caleb 'brought the cool' to their household and his little brother George would tell all his friends he had 2 brothers. "I had an idea while you were playing, can I play it for you?"

"Sure," she said, letting him take the guitar.

They worked on this song and the other one for a few hours, using random lines from Aria's journal and Caleb's ideas to flesh out the lyrics. By dinnertime, they had recorded a rough cut on her laptop. Ella asked Caleb if he'd like to stay for dinner, but he said he was expected at Lucas'.

* * *

[Guess what happens next! Part 2 up Thursday. Really guess, I wanna see if anyone gets it right.

Link to Aria's outfit from 2.19 The Naked Truth and the song in my profile.

OMG in response to all the reviews I got for the last chapter. See, this is one of those times I'm surprised everyone loved it because the last scene I have always felt was not perfect for one reason or another, but you guys really liked it! I can never predict.

Thank you! to my 3 anonymous reviewers, loooossee, and Esme, thehelloitsme, hiding. my .heart, JoJo Sky, and HarrylovesGinny09. I'm glad I could make you laugh. :D

I hope you guys aren't too disappointed I skipped over their night together. I never actually wrote what happens... figured I'd leave it mostly up to the imagination. Now I feel bad I got everyone's hopes up. :/ Sorry. ]


	84. Chapter 84

Um that was a freakin AWESOME episode of PLL! On the edge of my seat the whole time. Ezria cuteness then Ezria drama on top of a whole lotta other drama. Totally makes up for the last eps which underwhelmed me.

To Esme: First of all, thank you very much for the compliment. Second, I think Aria and Caleb should be friends on the show since they're friends in my head. And third, Caleb IS a great friend. To find out why, keep reading.

I want you guys to try and guess what she whispers before you get to the end.

* * *

(Part 2 of 2)

About halfway through dinner, Ella told Aria, "It's nice having you home for dinner for a change."

"I like being home," she said, but at that moment had actually been planning which bakery to hit up first for the sweet and tangy treat Maeby was insisting they get.

Then the doorbell rang. Aria answered it and found Ezra standing out there with two styrofoam containers in his hand. His dark red henley tee was dotted with raindrops. It had started drizzling just a few minutes ago. "What are you doing here?" she asked, pretty sure they didn't have plans tonight.

He popped the lid of one of the containers in response. Inside resided the most mouth-watering slice of cheesecake she'd ever laid eyes on. Atop a light crumbly graham cracker crust sat a wedge of creamy citrus filling topped with a layer of thinly sliced oranges covered in a glass-like caramelized glaze. It would surely taste as good as it looked. "What are you, a mindreader?" she asked, eyes wide with delight.

"Caleb texted me," Ezra said. About 2 hours ago he got a text from Caleb which read "Aria wants orange cheesecake." He replied, "On it, thanks," and set out in search of her latest edible desire. "I went to 3 different places before finding one which had this flavor. Snagged the last 2 slices from that diner by the hospital." A diner. She'd probably have driven to 6 different bakeries before thinking to try a diner.

Ella, wondering who was at the door and why Aria was letting out all the AC, caught the tail end of his explanation and saw Aria declare, "I love you," and pull him down for an enthusiastic kiss. The sight was a new one for her, and something she figured she'd have to get used to. The kiss turned a bit more raunchy than sweet, so Ella, standing in the middle of the foyer, cleared her throat and said, "Ezra, why don't you come in."

Caught up in the moment, he returned to reality, mortified when he realized the palm of his free hand was cupping Aria's ass, and detached Aria's zealous fingers from the back of his neck. "Oh, uh, I wasn't planning on staying. I just came to drop these off," Ezra said, holding up the white boxes, shiny with tiny beads of water sprinkled across the top. Aria tugged on his other hand, the one which unfortunately was no longer groping her backside, drawing him into the house.

"She had you running all over town for how long? Did you even eat dinner?" Ella asked as Aria closed the door.

"No, but I don't mean to intrude," he said and tried to surreptitiously wipe the remnants of Aria's lip gloss off his face, hoping it looked like he was touching his face to think over the invitation.

"You're welcome to join us," Ella said. He looked at Aria who said, "You're staying," as Ella said, "There's plenty." Especially since neither Byron nor Mike were home. She'd made a big batch of cilantro lime quinoa to go along with the grilled chicken. It was a new dish, but Aria assured her it tasted really good so she felt confident serving it to a guest. "And I hear there's cheesecake for dessert."

"Okay, well, thanks," he said, "but the second slice was for you, or whoever wants it." Ella didn't have the chance be appreciative of the thoughtful gesture because Ezra's next sentence was, "I don't like cheesecake."

"You don't like cheesecake?" they gaped at him simultaneously, with an eerily similar flabbergasted expression on their faces and the same unsettled posture.

His eyes flickered back and forth between the pair and he said, "No, uh, not really, no." It was a texture thing. And a flavor thing. Was it really a federal crime to not like cheesecake?

Both women turned around, and Ella put an arm around Aria, squeezing her upper arm, walking slowly toward the dining room. Ezra _really_ didn't get it when Ella said, "I think I found the flaw," and assumed he misheard.

Aria was secretly thrilled when her mother said this. She whispered loudly, "I've never heard of such a thing. Should I be worried this kid will inherit her father's hatred of cheesecake?"

"Perish the thought!" Ella responded, feigning horror by theatrically touching her forehead with the back of her hand.

"Do you think," she glanced back suspiciously at Ezra, who was following them into the next room, "do you think he's," she gulped, "not human? What planet do you think he's from?"

"A _crazy_ planet," she informed her daughter in a whisper. "Don't worry, sweetie, I'll keep an eye on him. If we find out he doesn't like chocolate, then I'll call for reinforcements."

_Oh he likes chocolate, believe you me_, Aria thought, fondly remembering when he was lapping it off her ass 4 short nights ago, and chuckled, then grinned back at Ezra, who quietly took the abuse, thinking how absolutely lucky he was for things to have turned out this way.

Aria set his place across from her at the table, then let him help himself while she delved into that wedge of perfection, which tasted better than she ever imagined. She ate it slowly, savoring every bite, engaging in a one-sided round of footsie with Ezra, trying to keep his attention on her while he tried to compliment Ella on the tasty meal. Aria thought the reddish burgundy hue of his shirt was a good color on him and couldn't help but stare at his biceps which flexed every time he cut with the knife and lifted the fork to his mouth. She skimmed some mindless fingers over her décolletage and captured his gaze for one quick second. Ezra was intentionally trying not to look at her because every time Ella was looking away, Aria would start eyefucking him from across the table, licking her lips libidinously, then wipe the expression clean when Ella looked up, believably pretending to be fascinated by the food on her fork. She used one finger to pick up every last crumb and held that finger in her mouth a bit too long, sucking on the tip rather suggestively until every tiny morsel had been eaten, then casually closed the box and went back to her dinner, picking up the bottle of hot sauce and shaking out a few extra drops over her plate. It was a sight to behold, the way she could turn it on and off while Ella remained completely oblivious.

Ezra tried to carry on a conversation with Ella about changing next year's curriculum as Aria's foot crept higher and higher up his pant leg. "Well, I wouldn't cut To Kill A Mockingbird if you can help it. The kids really enjoyed it and I th-think there's a lot to be learned from that book. They each seemed to have taken something different away from it," he told Ella and shook his left leg, but could not shake Aria's toe off his knee without drawing attention to himself. "Aria, you loved that book, right?"

"Mmhm," she answered as if she were actually interested in the discussion, and slid a toe up his inner thigh. No way could she reach any further, he thought. He was wrong.

A not-even-one-word answer was all he was gonna get. Distracting her was not working. And neither was shooting her disapproving looks. "So it'd be a shame to have to lose it, unless they move it to the 10th grade curriculum," Ezra continued. Aria's toe was about to reach its destination and he could not believe she was really doing this. _Get out of here_, he told himself. _Now!_

"No, I wouldn't cut that one," Ella said, "but there are a few others I thought we could do without in favor of-"

Ezra suddenly shoved his chair back and stammered, "W-Would you ex-_cuse_ me?" Aria's leg slid out of his pant leg to the ground when he jumped up and walked off in the direction of the bathroom.

Aria didn't give her mother a chance to wonder too hard about his sudden departure, asking, "What _would_ you cut?" as she slid a piece of chicken through a little puddle of tabasco and took a bite.

"I'd start with A Heart Is A Lonely Hunter," she said. "You guys didn't respond well to that one and there are plenty of other books I'd like to get the chance to teach." Ella had gotten her teaching degree many years ago, but this was the first year she had been able to put it to use. She was looking forward to teaching Mockingbird in the fall and thought Of Mice and Men never should have been replaced.

They continued chatting until he returned. When he sat down, he angled his chair away from Aria while his eyes told her 'that's not funny.' Her expression was unapologetic, but she'd had her fun and kept her feet to herself for the rest of dinner.

Aria had a pretty open relationship her mother, but couldn't quite bring herself to ask if she could go home with her boyfriend that night in order to show him the gratitude he deserved. So she gave him a demure hug and kiss goodbye, and whispered something in his ear before he thanked Ella and left.

While they were tidying up the kitchen, Ella said, "You shouldn't take that for granted. Not everyone would do that for you just because you asked."

Aria didn't correct her. "I don't," she said.

"It was very sweet what he did, but you shouldn't expect him to drop everything like that all the time on a whim." Though Ella had the impression he wasn't doing much of anything when she had called. "It wouldn't be right to take advantage of his kindness."

"I don't need you to tell me that," Aria said. "I am fully aware how lucky I am."

Ella dropped the subject and they talked about what Aria thought of summer school so far while they finished cleaning up.

Aria went upstairs and passed the time talking on the phone with Hanna. She explained Caleb's selfless gesture and told Hanna to give him a proper thank you since the "Thank you soooo much! ! !" text was not nearly good enough as evidenced by the "No big" response she got from Caleb. Hanna didn't need the instruction though. She thought it was the sweetest thing in the world, and damn sexy too, and would be showing Caleb just how much tomorrow.

Hanna asked if Aria wanted to come over and watch a movie or something, but Aria told her she would be busy tonight and for once actually told Hanna what she had planned. Hanna took advantage of Aria's sudden willingness to share, knowing it might not last long, and asked a bunch of inappropriate questions, including, "Do you ever call him Mr. Fitz?" the answer to which she had been dying to know for ages. "No," Aria said. "It freaks him out. .._Professor Fitz_ he's cool with though."

Then Aria went into some detail about night she spent with Ezra after they went to the pool. Hanna had wondered why Aria seemed so spacey that night, chalking it up to pregnancy weirdness, but now she understood and practically squealed when Aria read her a selection of the texts Ezra had sent. Hanna didn't get the play-by-play, but was given the general gist about the use of chocolate and the lengthiness of the whole event. And how she repaid him for it multiple times over the weekend. "He knows all my secret spots," she disclosed. "His fingers, are like, magic."

Eventually Aria had to hang up because the hour she had whispered in Ezra's ear was fast approaching and wanted to change into something sexier before his call came in. They had _quite_ a bit of fun video-chatting that night.

* * *

[Link to Aria's and Ezra's outfits in my profile.

I guess I didn't leave enough clues for you guys to guess Ezra would show up with cheesecake. Maybe if I had Caleb pull out his phone, but he doesn't text him right away, so that wouldn't have worked lol. Originally, this chapter didn't exist and the cheesecake thing was not included, but inspiration struck as it has been a lot lately. I've been adding so much to future chapters and adding new chapters, which ultimately is a good thing, but may result in more delays. Thanks for sticking with!

Anyone guess she told him to go online later? LoL. I left zero clues, but it's the only logical conclusion, to me at least haha.

To anonymous - yeah... sorry. :/ The sex chapters are usually the hardest to write. I didn't want to wind up writing the same thing over and over which is what I felt like would end up happening. But since you guys were all excited for this chapter, I started to write it.. and well I can't even believe I did. I can only guess that you guys sent me the inspiration because I have no clue where else it might have come from. I usually need much more than a day to come up with a chapter and then write it and refine it til I'm happy with it, especially one like this, but uhh it's nearly done, so once I'm completely happy with it, I will make it its own chapter and insert it where it belongs in order. I've already made a placeholder.

To maddie - you guessed it! ]


	85. Chapter 85

[Flashback]

Ezra brought home dinner from Rose of Sharon, their favorite takeout place. He told her he was worried about meeting her dad, but she brushed it off. _If he had the slightest idea what I've been doing to his daughter..._

They didn't harp on the subject, instead talking about the general goings-on in their lives and whatever topics happened to come up, or simply nothing at all. Silences were never awkward between them.

After dinner, Ezra went downstairs to put on a load of laundry, leaving Aria with a book, for English class incidentally. Whenever he was with her, he didn't think about their student-teacher relationship; it was an entirely separate entity. But when they were apart, he agonized over his daily decision to continue to be with her. The voice in his head always telling him to end it never won, never even came close, nor did it prevent him hating himself a little.

In class, they learned to avoid making eye contact with each other, knowing anyone might pick up on the fairly conspicuous sparks. He would call on her no more or less often than any other given student and did his very best to be objective when grading her work. It helped that English was her subject and she always understood the material very well. If he had doubts, he would give a handful of assignments, including Aria's, to another teacher to look over for a second opinion.

Ever since they'd started sleeping together, things had become more complicated. Or perhaps it wasn't more complicated, but much more dangerous. Ezra would constantly wonder if they were doing the right thing, if he had let her talk him into it too easily. But the truth was, he wanted to be with her as much as she wanted to be with him. Even though their relationship was based on a lot more than just sex, it seemed pointless to try and fight it and not express their love for each other in the most natural way.

But he wasn't naive. He knew what would happen if someone found out. The prospect of getting caught was actually not thrilling, but scary as hell for both of them. Neither was willing to let the other one go, especially as the result of a public spectacle which could damage their lives irreparably and keep them apart forever. He wondered how long this could realistically go on, but tried not to let himself go there. All he knew was that he loved her and the rest would come later.

When Ezra came back in, Aria wasn't in the chair he had left her in. Instead, he turned to find her lying on her stomach on his bed, wrapped only in a sheet, bare feet dangling in the air, thumbing through the pages of the assigned novel.

"What's this?" he asked, intrigued, dropping the laundry basket carelessly on the floor.

She shut the book. "I wanted to say thank you for standing up to that guy trashing Emily at lunch today, and couldn't think of a better way to do it."

He walked toward her. "You don't have to thank me for anything. I was doing my job. That guy was out of line."

Aria sat up, legs to the side, holding the sheet up, but just barely. "I want to thank you for standing up for my friend, and you're gonna let me."

_I have the best girlfriend,_ he thought.

He sat down in front of her and kissed her spiritedly. She leaned back immediately, pulling him down with her, her long hair billowing out on the comforter beneath them. He pushed the sheet away and teased one nipple with the pad of his thumb, eagerly exploring her mouth with his tongue. Ezra began a trail of kisses down her jawline, and neck, and the valley between her breasts. Aria grabbed at his shirt, trying to pull it over his head, but he wouldn't let her. She made a move to flip them over, but he wouldn't let her do that either. Instead of making this about him, he decided to make it about her - a _thank you_ for trying to thank him in the first place.

The trail continued down her abdomen, lower, and lower. Her skin burned in every place he was touching her, his fingertips sliding down her sides, and his lips pressed right below her navel. They had never done this before, so it came as a surprise when Ezra parted her legs with his hands and licked her, slow and through. A shock to her system, she squirmed involuntarily.

He did it again. "Mmmm," she sighed harshly.

And he did it again. "Ahhhh," she breathed. Each time, her hips lifted off the bed - a reaction over which she had no control. He had to hold her down.

Ezra centered his tongue on her clitoris, using the tip to delicately probe it. Her hips bucked again in response and she took a deep breath. The warm tingle in that indescribable place even deeper than the pit of her stomach was growing and spreading with each movement of his tongue. He began nibbling on the small mound of flesh, rolling it around gently in his teeth and her body jerked in answer to the torture. Then he licked it over and over again. Aria had to remind herself to breathe.

A low guttural moan escaped her throat. Her hands pressed to her face, then up into her hair, then down at her sides; she didn't know what to do with herself.

He nibbled some more, and sucked gently, loving knowing what it was doing to her. She thrashed all about, but he did his best to still her movements with his hands on her hips holding her in place, his thumbs sweeping back and forth across the ticklish skin there. Her breathing became labored and her fingers grasped desperately at the folds of the sheet beneath her. He kept at it, applying more pressure with his tongue. The sensation building at her core was unbearable. "I….. Oh…" she moaned, unable to form anything resembling a complete sentence.

He could tell she was right on the edge. Unsure if he should or not, he let his fingertips take over and boldly jetted his tongue inside her repeatedly, sending a new intense thrill through her body. It was the right decision, and sent her crashing right over the edge. Her hands covered her mouth as the blinding release flooded through her entire body. She screamed into them. Her toes curled and her legs tingled and her whole body shook with pleasure.

Ezra got to his feet, intending to give her a moment to recover, but as he walked past the bed, her hand flew out and grabbed his wrist. "N-n-n-n-n-no." Still breathing heavily, Aria gave him a wild-eyed look, and pulled him back onto the bed.

She frantically started to undo the buttons of his shirt, giving up quickly, moving to work on his pants and slipping a hand inside. She gave him a squeeze and Ezra toppled backwards, uttering, "Jesus." She yanked the slacks off, industriously taking his boxers with them, then climbed on top of him and yanked the shirt open. It may have lost a button. Neither of them cared.

Aria's mouth came down on his face hard, finding the taste on his lips strangely exciting, then with his hands in her hair, massaging her scalp, began her own trail downward. His breathing sped the lower she got. As her tongue crawled down his abdomen, she let her fingers reach their destination first and give him another squeeze. He let out a low grunt, and another when she took him in her mouth and swirled her tongue around the tip. She let her fingers tickle the underside of his shaft as her head bobbed up and down, sucking, taking more and more of him with each descent until she had his entire length in her mouth. He exhaled sharply every time he hit the back of her throat and nearly lost it when she made a low humming noise. Ezra pressed a hand to his forehead and watched her fixedly. Somewhere in the very back of his mind he wondered if he'd be able to get this unforgettable and undeniably arousing image out of his mind come Monday morning.

When she began to use her teeth, he growled roughly and she stopped, meeting his gaze for a brief second. As she hopped over to the bedside table, he pressed his fists to his temples and growled again, this time in frustration. She returned quickly, but not quickly enough. "You're killing me here," he grumbled.

"You are very impatient," she stated, rolling the condom down his throbbing erection extra slow, then sitting herself on top of it, letting out a long torturous sigh as she did. Her hands reached out for his chest and she ground her hips down slowly, staring him in the eye, taunting him. Having had quite enough, he grabbed her arms roughly, flipped her over and began thrusting into her forcefully, holding onto the shelf behind them for support. She had been planning to taunt him some more, but lost all recollection of it, as her eyes flitted shut at the first powerful plunge.

He held nothing back, nor did she want him to. Aria's left hand flew above her head, bracing herself against the solid part of the wall behind her. The heels of her feet pressed into his lower back and her right arm held his neck in place so she could hear his harried breathing in her ear. Ezra forced himself into her harder and harder and every time she rocked her hips against him, increasing the friction, and her throaty grunts of joy grew louder and louder each time. His face was buried in her hair and he bit down on her shoulder as they climaxed violently together. The pleasure far outweighed the pain as she bit her lip to stop from screaming, letting out a high-pitched squeal instead, digging her fingernails into his back.

As he rolled off of her, and they gasped for some well-needed oxygen, she panted, "See? Impatient."

Ezra laughed, unable to argue.

Aria cozied up next to him, resting her head on his chest, still rising and falling rapidly. "I should start thanking you more often."

* * *

[Link to this scene from 1.17 The New Normal in my profile.

So who remembers the line I planted in chapter 55 about the 1-900 call? How about "Aria thanked me enough for the both of you" in chapter 63? It's called foreshadowing people!

All of a sudden, this chapter, which has been written and complete for months, seems inferior compared to the chocolate one I just wrote. I think I'm getting the hang of this lol.

Esme, LoL Thanks!

Notinyourlifetimehoney, your review from chapter 58 was: "those two are so cute. no wonder they are having a baby. lol. hahaha." so I used your line at the end of chapter 81. :)  
Glad you did well with your coursework. I don't think I know the story you mentioned but I'll check it out.  
The chocolate scene will be chapter 82 as soon as I'm done working on it.  
Thanks for pointing out the link thing, fixed it, and thanks for your reviews!

pllover, I'm doing my best. Thanks!

Guest and ariafitz, I'm working on it. I'll publish as soon as I can, but since I've spent all my time working on this chocolate chapter, I've fallen behind with the upcoming chapters, so bear with me please. Thanks very much for reading. ]


	86. Chapter 86

Aria exited the bookstore one afternoon looking down at her phone and humming a tune to herself, and bumped right into someone on the sidewalk.

"Sorry," she said. "I wasn't paying at-"

"Aria?" he asked.

"Holden!" she exclaimed, so excited to see him, and hugged him without warning. "What are you doing here!"

He squeezed her back, then let go as he said, "We just moved back. I was gonna call you but-"

"I know. We've sort of lost touch the past few months. It's totally my fault.." she confessed. "I was _just_ talking about you recently and I meant to shoot you a quick email or something, but it slipped my mind." A lot of things had been slipping her mind lately.

"Don't worry about it. I'm glad I ran into you," he said. "I really was gonna call you. I got these concert tickets, the person I was supposed to go with bailed."

"A _girl_-person…?" Even though Aria hadn't seen Holden in years, nothing had changed. She still teased him about liking girls, like she had done when they were 8.

"Yes, a girl-type-person, much like yourself," Holden said with a thoughtless gesturing of one hand.

"Why'd she bail?" Aria asked and stepped aside to make way for the older man approaching, on his way into the bookstore.

Holden followed her a few steps to the right, saying, "Had something better to do, I guess," until they were standing in front of the store window.

"Her loss," Aria shrugged, as if to say 'what can you do.' "What concert?" she asked.

"The Fray," he told her. "They're playing the Electric Factory this Friday."

"I'm actually going to that already," she said with enthusiasm mixed with an apologetic tone. "I got tickets to surprise my boyfriend." _Months ago._

"Ooh." He looked disappointed.

"If you're looking for someone to go with though, I could ask my friend Emily," she offered cheerfully, tucking her hair behind her ear. "She said she wanted to go."

"Okay," Holden agreed.

Aria adjusted the tote bag on her shoulder. "I'll let you know what she says." Holden nodded and Aria asked, "So are you living in the same house? By the middle school?"

"No, it was sold," he said. "We moved into a new construction on Park." He pointed vaguely in that general direction. "..It was so weird driving past the old house. I wanted to get out and climb the tree in the front yard, but I don't think the new owners would appreciate it."

"Probably not.." she laughed. "I remember climbing so high up that tree once, I was scared to come down."

"But you did," he reminded her.

"Only because you talked me down. Literally." Holden had told her exactly which branches to step on and hold on to on her slow descent downward. She was afraid the fire department was gonna have to come fetch her out, like some scared kitten, but she trusted Holden implicitly and, with some words of encouragement, he got her safely to the ground. "We had so much fun," Aria said, her voice becoming more distant as she reminisced. "Remember how we could spend an entire afternoon in that tree? Doing absolutely nothing? Life was simpler. I miss it."

Holden's face brightened, full of mischief. "We could try it. I'm up for a little trespassing in the name of reliving some good memories if you are."

"No.." she chuckled and shook her head. "I can't.."

"What, you're too good for tree-climbing now? Afraid you'll ruin your dress?" Holden accused, taking in the black floral printed dress she wore belted above the waist, eyes dropping to the ground, spotting a loud pair of clunky neon green platform wedges. He had been wondering when she got so tall, then realized she hadn't. "Or those shoes? Good god where did you get those things?"

"Neon is very in this season," she proclaimed. "And if you knew what this dress cost, you'd understand my reluctance to ruin it."

"You're scared! That's it!" he said, thinking he had her all figured out. "You've gone soft on me."

"I have not," she insisted, flipping the phone over in her hand again and again.

"Are you scared we'd get caught?" he questioned, never knowing Aria to back down from a challenge before.

"No, I just can't," Aria said, twisting a toe into the concrete. She couldn't understand why it was suddenly so difficult to tell him her big news. Pretty soon she wouldn't have the chance to tell anyone because the baby bump would speak for itself. She wasn't ashamed of being pregnant, not the slightest bit, but for some reason, didn't want to tell him, and had been analyzing her reasons for not just blurting it out as she side-stepped each of his questions. She thought maybe it had to do with Holden being equivalent to her childhood and telling him sort of meant it was over. But she'd already accepted this fact long ago, long before the idea of being a mother at 17 had ever crossed her mind. And it wasn't that she thought her life was over, far from it. She knew her life would be different, and she'd be a lot busier than most other teenagers, but was looking forward to this new chapter more than anything. She decided she was being silly not sharing her news with the boy she used to share everything with and was about to say "because I'm pregnant," when he ended the unusual awkward silence.

Sensing he should back off, Holden asked, "So how've you been?" adding, "You look great," gesturing at the dress, hoping it would make up for insulting her footwear earlier. Plus she really did look great. He figured it had something to do with the summer sun or the way she was wearing her hair.

"I've _been_ great!" Aria replied, "Busy, with school and stuff," adjusting the bag containing her school books again.

"Isn't school out?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm going to 'summer school,'" she used air quotes, "so I can graduate early," inching her way towards the announcement.

"Oh did you get an early acceptance somewhere?"

Of course that's the logical conclusion, she thought. "No…" she said. "The baby's due in January so…" She pressed her dress to her stomach revealing the silhouette of an ever so slight baby bump, awaiting his reaction.

"Oh!" he said, surprised. "For real? You really have been busy…"

"Mmmhm," Aria nodded. _That wasn't so hard,_ she thought.

As surprised as he was, he couldn't help poking fun by bringing up a certain incident from their past. "Sure have come a long way since eating paste in kindergarten."

"If I remember correctly, I was _tricked_ into that!" she exclaimed, affronted. _Ranch dressing, my ass..._

"If that's your story…" he teased. "Wow, well, congratulations…" Now he understood why she wouldn't join him for some good old-fashioned juvenile delinquency.

"Thank you," Aria said, twisting back and forth a bit, pleased.

It wasn't necessary to ask her if she was happy about it, she clearly was, but he wondered if there was a reason for her initial reluctance to tell him. "Is it, like, a secret? Should I not mention it to my parents?"

"No, it's fine," Aria shook her head. "We're practically family. Ella's probably on the phone with your mom as we speak.. The situation is… a little complicated though, so I'd appreciate you not mention it to anyone else," she requested.

"Of course." Holden was Aria's original secret-keeper, though the secrets they shared were considerably more tame than the ones she kept now, such as covering for the other when they peeked at their Christmas presents early, or letting Mike take the blame for their occasional mischief.

"..I promise to climb that tree with you next year," she offered, knowing Holden didn't have the guts to go alone.

"I'm gonna hold you to that," he said grinning.

Aria glanced at her phone. She was going to be late for a tutoring session if she didn't get a move on. Normally she'd schedule them directly after school, but this student couldn't meet until later in the afternoon. "It was really great seeing you, but I gotta run. Maybe you could come over for dinner this week, we could catch up?" she asked, hoping he'd say yes.

"Yeah, for sure," Holden said as Aria gave her oldest friend another hug.

* * *

[I switched around the paste thing haha

Aria's outfit is from 2.19 The Naked Truth - link in my profile.

Thanks to Esme, AriaFitz, and maddie for your reviews! I am seriously doing the best I can lol. I plan to post the chocolate chapter tomorrow (Tuesday). I really hope I haven't built it up too much, but I'm fairly pleased with it, if that's any indication.

You won't get any alerts when I post it, so check chapter 82 starting tomorrow. ]


	87. Chapter 87

If you missed the chocolate scene, check chapter 82. I'd like to thank the people who encouraged me to write to write it. I'm really glad I did.

Disappointed by the lack of Fitz in the last episode...

* * *

Ezra was in the kitchen area of his apartment when Aria let herself in. He met her by the door and they exchanged some affectionate hellos, then Ezra said, "Aria, we really don't have to do anything for my birthday. It doesn't matter to me." He was content having a quiet dinner in and catching a movie on TV like any other night. But Aria had made other plans.

"It matters to me," she said, considering how incredible her birthday was and believing he deserved the same. "Besides, your birthday is technically not until tomorrow. Consider tonight the pre-party."

"You have something planned for tomorrow too?" _That's too much._

"Maybe," Aria said coyly, then giggled.

Ezra loved when the baby's name came up in conversation like this, so he smiled lightly and laughed and asked, "Well, what are we doing tonight?" since Aria had kept him completely in the dark. He took in her outfit as a means of guessing. She was dressed pretty casually, wearing a loose-fitting acid green and black tie-dye tank top, matching shoelace earrings, a beaded necklace, black skinny jeans and a small distressed leather crossbody bag covered in rivets. Dinner reservations at a nice restaurant was probably out.

She took his hand to look at his watch then said, "I'm not telling yet."

So time was a factor. This didn't help him any. "Okay, well what should I wear?" Whatever they were doing was probably a little more special than catching an 8pm showing of a foreign film at a local arthouse theatre, a typical date, since she'd been planning this for weeks, or possibly longer, he couldn't tell.

She gave him a once-over. "Not that," she stated in a way most people would be offended by. He was dressed business casual because he had taken a job at a tutoring center two towns over. They mostly did SAT prep, but also worked with students who needed to catch up or didn't want to fall behind over the summer. Many had learning disabilities, but Ezra had a lot of patience when it came to teaching and was well-suited for the job. "I'll find you something," she said and walked over to the closet.

While Aria shifted around some hangers, Ezra sat on the bed and asked, "How are things going at home?" '_with your dad_' was implied.

"Good," she said, her back to him. "My dad offered to make me breakfast this morning."

"Sounds like progress," Ezra said. Aria had told him Byron had barely said 2 words to her since he found out about the baby, but also said he'd get over it soon, which she didn't believe anymore.

She nodded her head, thinking, _nope._

_Aria had come downstairs this morning to find Byron in the kitchen making eggs. She gave him a small smile and said, "G'morning," and opened the fridge. She was wearing drawstring shorts and a long-sleeved cotton shirt with an asymmetrical hem about 6 inches higher than a normal shirt would fall, exposing her midriff, which, this day, Byron couldn't help staring at. _

_He responded with a perfunctory, "Morning," and watched her pull the carton of orange juice out of the fridge. "Would you, would you like some eggs? I can make you an omelet."_

_The offer was unexpected. She turned around and said, "Sure. Thanks." There was silence while she pulled a small glass out of the cupboard and Byron opened the egg carton sitting on the counter next to the stove. She poured her drink and took a sip and Byron said, "I also made bacon," lifting the lid off a pan on the back burner, "if you wan-"_

_"You made bacon?" Aria cut him off, knowing what was coming next. "She doesn't like-" she started to say, but was unable to finish the sentence. She made an involuntary gagging noise and ran out of the room covering her mouth. Byron didn't fully understand until he heard the puking sounds through the bathroom door. _

_When Aria came out, she was going to say something about him probably getting used to the same thing happening when mom was pregnant, hoping to use it as a conversation starter to find some common ground, but the kitchen was empty. The eggs were put away, as was the juice, but her cup was on the counter where she left it. The bacon pan was in the sink, but the bacon was nowhere to be seen. Aria poured herself a bowl of cereal and ate breakfast alone._

"Did you get to talk?" Ezra asked.

"No," Aria said with an indifferent tone and walked to the dresser. She found the drawer with his t-shirts and pulled one out with Arcade Fire insignia large across the front. Better to stick with the same genre, she thought, and pulled out another, a blue one for the band Bush with tour dates and locations listed in two columns down the back. It was times like these that Aria remembered the age difference between them. In 2002, while he was attending rock concerts, she was playing dress-up in her mother's closet. Because she was 8. Aria put that one down and picked up a black and grey t-shirt from an Augustana concert he had gone to before they met.

He waited for further explanation which never came. "Here, wear this," she said and tossed him the shirt.

_A band t-shirt,_ he thought. It could be a clue, or could be a random pick. A concert would be fun, he thought. They'd never been to one together. It could be another first, if that's what she had planned. He wasn't sure who was in town, but didn't much care if they were going together. Ezra pulled his current shirt over his head and said, "You really won't tell me where we're going?" Aria averted her eyes from his very appealing chest muscles, knowing they had no time for such a distraction. "If I'm driving, I'm gonna need to know sooner or later."

She didn't see the point in making him wait any longer. It wasn't like she could blindfold him all the way to Philadelphia. _Hm, blindfolds_, she thought, and filed the idea away for another day.

Ezra put the new shirt on and followed her back into the kitchen area. She didn't want to be in the vicinity of the bed when he found out. She paused in front of the island and spun around with a big smile. "Open your present," Aria said and handed him a card envelope topped with a silver bow which she had retrieved from the pocket on the outside of her purse.

Ezra turned it over, untucked the flap, and pulled out the card. "Did you make this?" he asked. The front of the card was a simple beach scene hand-painted in watercolors. "It's beautiful," he said, admiring the light brushstrokes, thinking the seascape was reminiscent of the view from Spencer's beach house.

She smiled again.

He opened it up and saw the concert tickets, but flipped them aside to see the words written first.

.

_Feel my heart beating_

_And to yours I will listen_

_Love you forever_

.

_Happy Birthday, my love_

_ ~Aria_

.

Ezra looked into her big eyes and exhaled. He didn't have the words.

"Do you like it?" she asked expectantly.

He nodded. His blue eyes glistened at her.

Aria found it necessary to break the eye lock. "You didn't even look at the tickets!" she cried, pushing his hands up towards his face.

He had forgotten about the tickets. Ezra flipped them back over and his eyes lit up. _The perfect present. _"I love it," he said, and picked her up in an appreciative hug. "And I love you," he added and kissed her warmly on the mouth.

"There is a slight catch," she informed him when he put her down. "My friend, Holden, and Emily are coming."

Ezra said, "I don't care who else is coming as long as I'll be there with you."

* * *

Links to Aria's outfit from 2.18 A Kiss Before Lying, Aria's pajamas from 1.05 Reality Bites me, and Ezra's t-shirt in my profile.

Thank you to anonymous. That's what I was going for (chapter 82). And thank you to guest.


	88. Chapter 88

(Part 1 of 3)

Ezra and Aria met Holden and Emily at the train station. During the ride, Aria begged Holden to stop telling embarrassing stories from her childhood, and eventually had to resort to threats. She had plenty of dirt on him too.

Holden and Emily bonded over a shared interest in athletics and also over moving around a lot during their childhoods. Emily had been to 6 different schools before finally settling in Rosewood. Holden moved away in 7th grade, and then to Portugal for his father's sabbatical for the past year so they had never actually been in Rosewood at the same time. Ezra could sympathize, but couldn't quite relate since the only time he had moved, besides when he left for college, was after his parents split up, and he didn't have to change schools.

Holden showed off his ability to speak Portuguese, saying, "_Uma só língua nunca basta_," when the subject came up. Both he and Ezra teased Aria for not picking up the language in Iceland as easily. She said something to Ezra in French which neither Emily nor Holden understood, because they'd opted to take Spanish, but Ezra understood plenty, and the mini-roast of Aria came to an end. It made a brief resurgence later on when Holden made fun of Aria wearing shoelaces for earrings. But Emily came to her defense, claiming to own a pair of neon shoelace earrings in her jewelry box at home. No one was fooled.

It was mentioned that Holden and Aria's families used to vacation together each summer, except the last one, so they hadn't seen each other in about 2 years until running into each other on the street the other day. In the meantime, they had kept in touch online, but both had been busy and dropped the ball the past few months. Holden's father was returning to his former position in the biology department at Hollis, so it seemed like Holden would be sticking around until graduation.

Ezra would have mentioned he also worked at Hollis, but missed his opportunity when Holden and Aria started animatedly recalling the time they "freed" the "helpless oppressed" frogs Holden's father kept at his lab, Aria's altruistic idea. The pair seemed to have endless stories to tell. Ezra loved to hear them, but also felt an unexpected kernel of jealousy towards the boy with whom Aria had grown up and couldn't tell if Holden was purposely trying to show him up by bringing up the treehouse in the backyard of the timeshare their parents had rented which they'd slept in together 7 out of the 8 nights they'd stayed there. He'd been jealous before, any time he saw her with another guy, perhaps a more age appropriate guy, or someone who wouldn't potentially lose their job, or worse, for being with her, but hadn't felt that way once since she'd gotten pregnant and they made this unspoken commitment to one another. She had become close with Caleb and never did a pang of jealousy run through him when he saw them together. Envy at his mad guitar skills, yes, jealousy, no. But Holden was literally Aria's oldest friend in the world and possibly knew her better than he did. He was illogically jealous of their history together. However, Ezra recognized the irrationality of this feeling and was able to quell it, or at least not let it show.

On the train, Aria sat across from Holden, with Ezra's arm over her shoulder and Emily sat next to Holden in the aisle seat. At one point, Aria stated, "I'm hungry."

"Have you got any almonds stashed in your purse?" Ezra asked. She usually did.

"No, I finished them yesterday and forgot to bring anything today." While she was upstairs in her room getting ready, she had planned to grab a granola bar from the kitchen, but completely forgot about it once she got downstairs.

While Ezra was kicking himself for also forgetting, Emily had been digging in the embroidered bag slung across her grey and silver beaded top and pulled out a little plastic package of apple slices, still a little cool from being in the fridge. She handed them across to Aria, who said, "Thanks, Em!" Ezra flashed Emily a most appreciative smile.

Emily said to Holden, "I've got more if you want some."

"Sure, thanks," Holden said. He was a little hungry too and figured no one would want to eat them the longer they sat in Emily's bag. Emily genially handed over the other package. He pulled it open and took a bite and said, "This feels like kindergarten, snack time, you remember? All that's missing are the tiny cartons of milk," holding up his fingers estimating the approximate size of those miniature milk cartons.

"I could go for some chocolate milk right now," Aria said. The mere mention was enough to set off a craving.

Emily started shuffling around in her bag again and they all watched her, half expecting her to pull out a tiny carton of chocolate milk. "Don't tell me you brought some," Ezra said.

Emily stopped and looked up. "Nope, sorry, fresh out." They all laughed. Aria was mildly disappointed.

Holden took another bite and mentioned, "I was going to bring you some gummy bears, like I used to do, but I wasn't able to get to the store earlier."

"It's probably for the best," Ezra said and noticed Aria mindlessly scratching her stomach. She had started doing that every once in a while lately, figuring the mild itching was caused by the skin beginning to stretch.

"Why? Aria loves them."

_I know that,_ Ezra thought, but refrained from saying out loud, and took over lightly scratching her belly over her shirt, taking care not to inadvertently start tickling her.

She barely noticed. "No, he's right," Aria nodded. "I've sort of sworn off gummy bears..."

"How come?" he asked, never expecting her to speak such blasphemy, and glanced down at Ezra's moving fingers. Emily noticed as well and guessed better than Holden why he was doing it, who at the moment was considering it a territorial sort of move. Emily would have taken a picture of the thoroughly endearing sight if she could have gotten away with it unnoticed.

"I may love them a _little_ too much..." she said, looking down and to the side, and suddenly felt his fingertips as if they were touching her bare skin, causing nerves to start firing in her gut and ideas to start running through her head.

"Alright..." Holden said, confused.

"Can I tell him?" Aria asked, turning to Ezra, putting a hand on his chest. "He won't judge you."

"Uhh." Ezra was unsure. On the one hand, all of her friends already knew their secret, and did not seem to judge him for it. On the other hand, the more people they told, the more likely it would be to slip out. Especially since Holden was such a close family friend. News might travel fast and he'd prefer Ella not look at him with disgust every time he entered the room.

"Em, you don't judge him, right?" she asked, sitting back in her seat. Ezra kept his arm around her shoulder, but stopped scratching, for which Aria was grateful. Any time he had his hands on her, even in the most non-sexual way, she found it difficult to pay attention to anything else.

"I don't think I know this story..." Emily said, but guessed it couldn't be worse than him spilling details about drunken college parties or more embarrassing than the Halloween facepaint story.

"No, in general," Aria clarified. "You don't judge him for what went on?"

_What went on when? _Holden wondered. What could he have done?

"No," Emily replied. "At first, I may have questioned it, but I could see how much you loved him. I encouraged you to let him in. Completely, remember?" Emily was referring to the time she encouraged Aria to be truthful about the Jenna thing since Ezra was oblivious to their history and Aria hated pretending. "Completely" was an overstatement though because letting him in completely would have involved telling him about A, and that was not an option.

Aria remembered that conversation. A smile came over Aria's face as she replayed it in her head. _"Aren't your Saturdays reserved for coffee and cartoons with Fitz?" _Emily had asked. Aria couldn't believe that Emily had actually bought that's how they spent their Saturdays. "That's right, you did," she said. Turning again to Ezra, she said, "You should thank her for that." Sharing that part of her past with him had brought them closer.

"Thank you," he said to Emily, without knowing exactly why. Emily had always been a strong supporter of their relationship, truly believing love conquers all. She also had tried to get Aria to realize what she had right in front of her, instead of doing something stupid, with Jason, and risk losing Ezra. Ezra actually had a lot to thank her for.

Holden had been trying his best to keep up with the conversation, but it all flew right past him. "I am so confused right now," he said.

"Go ahead and tell him," Ezra said, looking at Aria, whose judgment he trusted completely. "He's your friend. You shouldn't have to lie to him, we lie enough already."

"Okay, I'll tell you," she said to Holden, "but then I'm gonna tell you the fake story we tell people, in case your mom asks, or you ever talk about it with my mom or anyone."

"Aria," Ezra squinted at her, "what are these conversations you think people are having about you?"

She lifted her hand and mussed up his hair. "It's better for everyone to know, just in case. We have to cover our bases." Aria was nothing if not thorough.

* * *

"_Uma só língua nunca basta_" = One language is never enough.

Emily's blouse from 2.16 Let the Water Hold Me Down - link in my profile

Thank you to guest.


	89. Chapter 89

[I hope this is not too ridiculous]

* * *

(Part 2 of 3)

Holden had no idea what was going on. He looked to Emily for answers since he was getting none from the pair sitting across from him.

Aria nudged his knee with her foot to get his attention while Ezra flattened out his hair. "What I'm about to tell you is a secret. There's no talking about it with anyone, okay?"

"Okay," Holden agreed. It wouldn't be the first time she'd asked him to keep a secret, though he had a feeling this one would be bigger.

"You never asked how Ezra and I met." Aria had said "Ezra's a nice guy. You'll like him," when Holden came to her house for dinner the other day, but not much else. They were too busy talking about Portugal and reminiscing about old times, plus they knew they would all be getting together on Friday anyway.

"I was going to. I can tell you're older than us," Holden said, addressing Ezra. The use of all these pronouns for people involved in the same conversation went against the manners he had been brought up with.

"I am. 5 years," Ezra affirmed.

"6 tomorrow," Aria said.

"So you like to remind me," he told her.

"It doesn't matter," she maintained.

"I know it doesn't," he agreed. _Numbers don't mean a thing._

"That's not so bad.." Holden said. In days gone by, it was not unusual for a teenaged girl to take up with an older man. In fact, it was the norm. Ezra had occasionally used this fact to rationalize their relationship to himself, but mostly didn't have to; Aria was clearly more mature than other girls her age and he never looked at her and saw a number.

Aria continued her story. "So we met in a pub the day before school started and started to get to know each other." _In more ways than one._

"What's the big deal?" Holden asked. "You don't want your mom to know you were drinking? After some of the stories you've told me about Iceland... I don't think she would care that much." He crumpled up the now empty plastic baggie which Emily took from him and stuffed back in her purse to toss when they arrived. Holden gave her a quick smile as thanks.

"Well, no, I wouldn't want her to know that," Aria said, "but I wasn't drinking. The point isn't that we met in a bar, the point is we met before school started. And the next day we found out he was teaching my English class. ...And we basically kept dating the entire time he was my teacher," she revealed, munching on the last apple slice.

_Way to sugarcoat it,_ Ezra thought.

"Oh," Holden said, looking Ezra up and down. He liked him well enough so far, for the guy who got his best friend pregnant during high school. This new information wasn't exactly endearing him to the guy.

"You're making it sound really bad," Ezra told Aria, then turned to Holden. "First of all, she told me she was in college."

"No I didn't," Aria said. She had chosen her words carefully and did _not_ lie to him that day. Not technically. She would admit to bending the truth. Lying by omission if forced.

"Okay, she _purposely_ let me _believe_ she was in college," he amended his statement, looking at Aria. Her lack of disclosure about her status as a high school student was the first thing they'd ever disagreed about, but now they were both really glad about it. Ezra turned back to Holden, who did not consider that to be a very good excuse, and said, "It's not as if we didn't try to end it." _'I' more than 'we.' _"I didn't _enjoy_ the fact we were in that situation. It's why I started looking for a new job and eventually got one, so we could be together, legitimately." He'd never had to defend himself like this before, except to his friend Hardy, but that was different because Hardy knew Ezra and knew he wouldn't have pursued this relationship if it wasn't real. Holden, on the other hand, didn't know Ezra from Adam and may not have been thinking the worst, but clearly didn't have a very high opinion of Ezra at this moment.

"You couldn't have, like, waited, until after?" Holden asked Ezra.

Ezra knew that would have been the right thing to do, but didn't love hearing it from Holden.

"No," Aria said flatly. She didn't wait for anything. "And it's not as if I didn't try to drop the class. I wasn't, like, begging to play out some twisted student-teacher fantasy." Holden seemed slightly troubled by this and Aria read his face easily. She knew his every expression better than she knew the back of her own hand. Spending years and continents apart couldn't change that. "...I said you wouldn't be judgmental. So don't be," she told him pointedly.

Holden squinted at her then turned his attention back to Ezra. "When did you quit?" he asked.

Ezra knew exactly why Holden asked that question and answered, "January." A teacher who gets a student pregnant _while_ he's her teacher makes the news, and likely lands in jail. Not that it was any better to have been sleeping with her at that time without getting pregnant.

"Holden," Aria said, nudging his knee again, disrupting the stare down he had been engaging in with Ezra. "What did I just say?"

"Fine. I'm not judging you," Holden said to Ezra, or both of them, but he was, a little. They all had a second to think about this, until Holden frustratedly said, "What the hell does any of this have to do with gummy bears?" _You make one simple story so damn complicated,_ he thought at Aria.

Aria had completely forgotten why they had started this conversation. "Right, well, Ezra brought some into class one day."

"I remember that," Emily said, finally making the connection, though she still wasn't sure what story Aria would be telling.

Ezra jumped in, since there was no longer anything to hide, and he knew Aria wouldn't, or couldn't, tell the story right. "She had mentioned she liked them one night, so I brought some in for the whole class the next day, just to see if it would make her happy." He also may have wanted to bring attention to the fact that Aria now spent her nights with _him_.

"He's sweet like that," Aria made this positive comment about Ezra to Holden, since they'd sort of gotten off to the wrong foot, squeezing Ezra's upper arm a bit tighter than she already had been.

_Again with the pronouns!_

"And it did. Make her happy," Ezra continued. Aria had smiled so brightly when he produced the clear container of little multicolored candies. "I passed them around at the beginning of class, saying it was a reward for some well-written essays. She took a whole bunch and piled them on her desk, and the _way_.." Ezra said, raising the pitch of his voice the slightest bit, using his hands to try and get his point across, "she was eating them all throughout class... Let's just say, she was breaking the rule we had about making too much eye contact..." It was driving him to absolute distraction while he tried to engage the group in a deep discussion about symbolism in the current novel while Aria would slowly, seductively pop one gummy bear into her mouth at a time, chew it slowly, and then swallow deliberately, reminding him of the very generous thing she'd done for the first time to sublime completion the night before. Ezra found it rather difficult to compartmentalize his feelings when she was bringing their relationship into the classroom. Though, technically, he started it. "When the bell rang, she didn't stop. She came up to my desk and took some more, then tried to grab my hand, with this _look_ in her eye." A very familiar libidinous look, a completely inappropriate look to be giving him at school. "I jumped backward into the blackboard then tried to pretend I tripped on my shoelace and bent down to tie it. I swear she was about to run a hand through my hair, but when I finally looked up, she was gone." It was a very close call.

Aria took over, talking more to Ezra than Holden. "Hanna had to drag me out. She said I looked like I was about to jump your bones right there, but I swear I don't remember doing it." Aria added, "You punished me for that that night," with a slightly lowered voice and naughty tone.

Ezra remembered. His anger and incredulity at her side of the story transformed into patent amusement at her apologies, which he fully took advantage of. Gummy bears were involved.

"I don't remember _that," _Emily said, laughing under her breath. _How did I miss all that?_

"You were sitting in front of her," Ezra pointed out.

"They sure never had that effect on you before..." Holden said. He surely would have remembered.

"That's because the last time you brought me gummy bears, we were 12," Aria explained. "I'd just run around in circles for a while 'til the sugar left my system." She thought it would be rude to mention the conclusion she had come to on the subject - perhaps it wasn't the gummy bears themselves which made the difference, but who supplied them. "Yeah, so... I don't eat them much anymore cuz I tend to forget where I am, and what I'm doing."

"Are you sure they weren't laced with something?" Holden questioned, not in an accusatory way, but Ezra wasn't so sure. "That's not normal."

"_Aria's_ not normal," Emily corrected, as if he didn't already know. Surely he remembered the lederhosen, that's right, _lederhosen,_ Aria wore to school in 6th grade, which Emily wished she had been around to have seen, but Spencer did a pretty good job of describing in mirthful and accurate detail. "I had some and I didn't try to jump Mr. Fitz."

* * *

Thanks again to guest, whoever you are. :)

Next chap up.. Thursday? Then I need to take a little break, get things in order. Don't worry, I won't forget you guys are out there waiting.


	90. Chapter 90

More similarities to the show in future chapters... like one thing word for word. It was a good ep. Lots of Ezria stuff, but overall, not my fave ep. Last week was more exciting.

* * *

(Part 3 of 3)

After grabbing dinner at Chipotle, a casual Mexican restaurant Aria had seen an ad for and was desperate to try, which fortuitously carried chocolate milk, the group arrived early to the concert venue and claimed their spots right up front. The atmosphere became alive and electric starting with the first notes of "Here We Are," a brand new song yet unreleased by The Fray. It was amazing seeing them perform live, to hear all the lyrics that really spoke to their listeners amplified in surround sound. This band knew how to please a crowd. They kept things interesting by jumping from a mid-tempo tune to a romantic piano ballad to a somber melody that tugged at the heartstrings to a bold rock song with a triumphant chorus.

Ezra kept his arms wrapped around Aria protectively for much of the concert. While the band played "Never Say Never," a favorite of theirs, he held her tightly and they pretended they weren't surrounded by thousands of other people. Aria sang along quietly, knowing every lyric, and when she sang '_Don't let me go,'_ Ezra thought, _I won't. _During "Happiness," she twisted her head around and he leaned down to kiss her. It was their song. They swayed to the music and enjoyed the fact they were able to be out in the open. The bubble of love they'd created around themselves was practically visible to the naked eye.

Emily caught Holden watching them from time to time. "I know what you must be thinking," she said during a quieter moment of the show, "but look at it this way. He risked _everything_ to be with her. He _loves_ teaching, he's really great at it, and he would have given it up for her."

Holden hadn't thought of it that way. Emily seemed to be a kind and friendly person and had an air of trustworthiness about her, so Holden tried to take her words to heart. He watched them some more and started to see them how Emily saw them, like they _fit_ together, and nothing could pry them apart. He realized he'd never seen Aria happier and couldn't hold the unusual circumstances of their relationship against Ezra anymore. "They really love each other, don't they?" Holden asked Emily, gesturing to the couple so happy, they could have been floating on air in this moment, fully engrossed in the music no one else knew had brought them together in the first place.

_He gets it, _Emily thought and replied, "They _really_ do."

.

Aria fell asleep on the train ride home, resting her head on Ezra's shoulder. The conscious three chatted, talking about the music, discussing their assorted and opposing feelings about the opening band, and getting to know one another a little better. The boys found they had something in common besides their shared devotion to Aria when Ezra learned that Holden was also an Arthur Miller fan. Like the rest of her friends, Holden was an atypical teenager; Ezra wasn't surprised. Aria knew how to pick 'em.

When they pulled into the Rosewood station, Ezra gently nudged Aria awake enough to walk sleepily through the parking lot, holding onto her the whole way. They bid Holden and Emily goodnight and Ezra made sure Holden would walk Emily back to her car since it was pretty late, an unnecessary request since he would have done so anyway. Once inside the car, Aria was asleep again in an instant and did not wake when they pulled up in front of the Montgomery household. Ezra turned off the engine and got out. He opened the passenger door, undid her seatbelt, and scooped her up into his arms, in the process grabbing her purse which had fallen onto the seat and the t-shirt she had purchased and tied into a knot. Aria was vaguely aware of what was happening, but couldn't bring herself to protest, since in his arms was where she liked to be. She curled against him and held on as he tread up the walk.

The porch light flicked on and Ella held the door open while Ezra brought Aria inside. He was glad he wouldn't have to fish for her keys, but also unsure what Ella would have to say; her face was unreadable through the shadows. Ella was at first thinking Aria might be sick, but Ezra probably would have said something if that were the case. Then she thought about how Byron used to do the same thing after the kids fell asleep during long car rides.

Ezra made a right turn into the dark living room and set her down gently on the sofa, placing her bag and souvenir t-shirt on the coffee table. He could have carried her upstairs, she was light enough, but thought he was pushing it already by bringing her home like that in the first place, and knew she'd probably be up in about 3 hours and could move herself to her own bed then.

Aria tried to settle in comfortably while Ezra knelt down to undo the laces of the snakeskin ankle boots with the 4" stacked heel she had worn to give herself a fighting chance at actually seeing the stage.

"Did you like your present?" she murmured at him quietly, without opening her eyes because her eyelids were far too heavy to even attempt such a laborious action.

He noiselessly dropped the second shoe onto the carpet and shuffled sideways to be closer to her face. "I loved it. Thank you."

She smiled drowsily and shifted again, hugging the cushy pillow under her head.

He could have stayed lost in this moment forever, watching her smile as she slept. "Goodnight, love," he whispered softly, "sweet dreams," and kissed her on the forehead. Aria was asleep within seconds.

When Ezra stood, he saw Ella watching them. He draped the nearby chenille throw over his sleeping sweetheart and met her mother in the foyer, hoping Ella was reading deference in his body language, not arrogance, worried the way he took it upon himself to just walk into their house after midnight might be viewed as too cavalier.

"Is she feeling okay?" Ella asked in a low tone.

Brushing his hair back, Ezra answered, "No, yeah, she's fine," in an equally low voice, not wanting to disturb Aria or the other people asleep in the house. "We did a lot of walking and were on our feet the whole night, she's dead tired," he explained. The restaurant was quite a few blocks from the concert venue, and the frozen yogurt shop Aria led them to after the show was a bit out of the way as well. He had been worried the prolonged standing might be too much and at one point considered having her sit on his shoulders, but decided against it because he wouldn't want her to fall, and he didn't want to be that inconsiderate douchebag who blocks everyone's view; there's one at every concert, which he knew from experience. Aria never complained once though, and never took him up on his offer to go find a seat somewhere, so they were able to enjoy the whole show from the best location in the house.

"Did you have a good time?" she asked and Ezra relaxed a bit.

"We had a blast," he said, nodding. Last year, the idea of attending a concert together was unfathomable. Tonight, it happened, and it was perfect.

"It's after midnight," Ella said and Ezra immediately tensed up again.

"Didn't she tell you we'd be late?" he asked, then wished he hadn't pawned the blame off onto Aria.

"No," Ella smiled close-mouthed and shook her head lightly. "I mean, it's after midnight. So happy birthday."

"Oh," Ezra said, slightly taken aback, then smiled too. "Thank you."

He didn't make a move to leave, so Ella reminded him. "Goodnight..."

_Right._ He nodded once, said, "Goodnight," and let himself out.

* * *

[Links to songs and Aria's band t-shirt in my profile.

Chipotle is awesome. If you ever pass one by.. you should go there. You're welcome in advance.

Thanks to guest. Hope you enjoyed!

Notinyourlifetimehoney, Haha LoL. Thanks! ]


	91. Chapter 91

Okay, so the writers of the show have to stop stealing lines from my story. Enough already! Haha. It's gonna be a while before you have any idea what I'm talking about.

Also, what in the what!? Ezra really does have a lot of skeletons in his closet... This is a very interesting storyline I did NOT see coming, and I'm usually pretty good at predicting stuff. Came out of nowhere. Props to the writers for this storyline, how they've handled it so far, and for this episode in general. Really intense...

And... I think Ezra might be A. :::bitestongue:::

* * *

(Part 1 of 5)

The next day, Aria let herself into Ezra's apartment carrying a paper bag full of groceries. She heard the shower running while she set the bag down on the counter and dropped her keys. The water turned off as Aria neared the bathroom door. She barely knocked before opening it and poking her head in. "What would you rather h-" Aria began to ask when an attractive blonde woman in a towel turned around and screamed in surprise.

Aria's eyes went wide. She quickly backed up and shut the door. "Sorry!" she yelled, looking around, double checking she was indeed in the right apartment. Her phone buzzed in the pocket of her dress.

.

Ezra: Don't come over til 6.

.

It was 5:45. Aria shot off a text immediately.

.

Aria: Why, so I don't stumble upon the hot girl in your shower? ?

.

The mystery woman stepped out. "I'm so sorry!" she said. "Ezra said it would be okay to use the shower. I felt all grimy after the flight. I didn't realize he was living with somebody-"

"I don't live here," Aria said, thinking, Y_ou better be his sister. His long lost sister._ Also acceptable, distant cousin.

"Oh, I, well, I could tell. This place could definitely use a woman's touch," she digressed.

Aria hadn't done much to change his apartment for many reasons. First of all, he didn't need any help with decorating; he'd done what she considered a pretty good job on his own. Second, he had tons of stuff already and not much space to add more, and she'd never ask him to get rid of anything to make room for her own unnecessary stuff for the sake of making it more girly. Third, she didn't want to encroach on his space when she technically didn't live there and decided against purchasing him a new bedspread for that reason, going for some masculine throw pillows that day instead. Last, she'd always felt at home in his apartment and saw no need to change it dramatically. It was rather off-putting for 'towel girl,' as Aria was calling her in her head, to be passing judgment on a place it seemed she had never set foot in before today. Or better not have. Before Aria could decide if she was offended or not, her phone buzzed and she glanced at the screen.

.

Ezra: It's not what you think!

.

Aria waited for an explanation which didn't come quick enough for her liking. "_Who_ are you?" she asked impatiently, spying the dark roots under her tight honey-toned curls. _You're not even a real blonde,_ she thought.

"Melanie." She stuck out her hand to shake Aria's, making sure to hold the towel up with the other. That same towel would hit Aria mid-thigh, while on this woman, in her mid-20s if Aria had to guess, it left nearly every inch of her long lightly-tanned legs exposed.

Aria reached out cautiously to shake hands, thinking, _only bimbos are named Melanie_, taking a step, and nearly tripped on an open suitcase on the floor.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have left that there." Melanie crouched down to move it.

Obviously not getting anywhere with the 'who are you?' question, Aria tried a different tack.

.

Ezra: It's exactly what youuthnk

.

She glanced at the glowing screen for a half a millisecond. "Where's Ezra?" she asked 'towel girl.' She'd be upgraded to 'Melanie' once Aria found out exactly who she was and what she was doing there.

"At the liquor store," Melanie replied casually, sifting through her suitcase, which she had slid a few feet to the left to be less of a tripping hazard. Then she looked up. "That sounds really bad, doesn't it?" Now would have been a good time to explain how she'd only met Ezra today and had not and was not planning to sleep with him, but Melanie was sometimes a little scatterbrained, today especially, still a little on edge after the crazy turbulence of the flight earlier.

Aria didn't answer. _Ya think?_

"He's at the liquor store with Hardy. I'm Hardy's girlfriend," Melanie finally explained as she rose to her feet holding some items of clothing from her luggage. Even in her favorite pair of platform clogs, Hardy's barefoot girlfriend had a few inches on Aria.

"Oooh," Aria said, breathing a sigh of relief. _Now was that so hard? _"Nice to meet you. I'm Aria," she introduced herself.

"So you're the girl who's got Ezra's heart all aflutter? That's right…" She shook her finger in recognition. "I saw your picture… Which do you like better? The black or the print?" She held up a pretty standard little black dress and then a scoop neck jewel-tone tunic-style dress.

"The print," she responded readily, feeling bad she had called her a bimbo in her head. Melanie was actually a really nice name, Aria thought.

"Me too," Melanie decided and dropped the black one.

"You saw my picture?" Aria asked.

"Yeah, the one in the hot tub. I was with Hardy when Ezra sent it," she explained, examining the other garment, checking a spot, brushing away some imaginary lint and shaking it out. "Hardy was cracking up, trying to explain how Ezra wasn't the type to get one girl in a hot tub, let alone 3," and flashed her a smile. "That must've been a fun night, huh?"

"Actually, it was…" Aria said. _Top 5. Top 10 for sure._

"Be right back," Melanie said, and slipped back into the bathroom.

Aria, still a bit bewildered by the previous conversation, swung her hands around, trying to get her bearings. A plan developed in her mind.

Melanie emerged moments later in the dress Aria chose, rubbing the towel against her still-wet hair.

She turned around and asked, "Would you tie the sash?" over her shoulder. Aria tugged the black satin fabric around her slim waist and while she was tying it into a neat bow, Ezra burst through the door, wild-eyed and breathing heavily. He had run up the stairs.

Aria dropped her hands to her sides. "I found your secret girlfriend, Ezra. How could you?" Aria said tearfully and shoved past him out the door.

Ezra stared at Melanie, then whipped around to catch Aria who was already halfway down the hall, feigning tears.

"Aria! Wait!" He caught up and grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face him and grabbing the other to prevent her from escaping. "It's not what you think! I don't even know her!" Ezra shouted, trying to make her understand, "I would _never_- I would _never_- You're _it _for me, you know that, right?"

He scanned every of inch Aria's face, trying to detect if his words had any effect, awaiting her response. Aria's trembling lip and downcast eyes transformed into giant grin.

"Your _secret girlfriend_, Ezra?" she mocked. "You are too easy!" she said, laughing and pushing him against the wall to kiss him.

Ezra knit his brows together, still terribly confused, and mumbled, "You're not upset?" against her moving lips.

"For what?" she pulled back, "Letting Hardy's girlfriend use your shower?" then moved back in, pressing her hands to his chest, stretching up to reach him.

Finally realizing what was going on, he said, "That wasn't funny!"

"Oh it was a little funny," she said, nibbling on his bottom lip.

"I'd say it was a lot funny," Melanie said, watching from the doorway.

"I like her," Aria decided. "She has a sense of humor."

Just then, Hardy came waltzing around the corner, laughing to himself, carrying a bottle of wine in each hand. "What'd I miss?" he asked, taking in the scene.

"You missed the whole show. This girl is gonna win an Oscar someday," Melanie told Hardy as the two of them went back into the apartment.

Still not submitting to her kisses, Ezra told her, "You really scared me. I hate seeing you like that."

She could see the hurt in his eyes and pulled away. "I'm sorry," she said apologetically. "I didn't think you'd actually fall for it." It was actually not very nice to do that to him on his birthday, Aria decided, but she couldn't have passed up such a perfect opportunity which fell right into her lap.

"Just don't do it again," he said. Every time she would walk out on him, or try to, he would go a little crazy with fear he wouldn't get her back.

Aria stood on her toes to kiss him again which he finally reciprocated. She pressed her lower half into him and Ezra's hands traveled down her back to her ass, as they frequently did, and pulled her even closer. He really did enjoy squeezing it, and had always wanted to, even when it was strictly forbidden. He couldn't help checking it out those first few days of school, or the day they'd attended the movies together with her mother, or basically any day since then.

"Break it up, you guys," Hardy said, poking his head out the open door. He hadn't seen them together since the first time they'd met at that bar, but he was not at all surprised to see them like this now, acting like lovesick puppies.

Aria grumbled low under her breath, "Always ruining our fun.." Ezra smiled and kissed her again, thinking he probably deserved it for messing things up for Hardy with the chick from the sociology stacks that time, which Hardy had never entirely forgiven him for.

"Don't make me get the hose," he warned.

Aria glared sideways at Hardy, then the lovers broke apart. As they walked hand-in-hand back inside, Ezra asked, "How'd you sleep last night?

"Like a baby," she said, and they both chuckled.

"You really had me going there for a minute," Melanie said as Ezra shut the door. "I thought, I just told her who I was, does she really think I'm Ezra's secret girlfriend?"

"Secret girlfriend? I thought _you_ were his secret girlfriend," Hardy teased, poking Aria lightly in the ribs as she rounded the island, passing him by.

"Nice to see you again, Hardy," Aria said with a tone somewhere between sarcastic and polite. She hadn't seen Hardy since their first meeting, but she did speak to him when she answered Ezra's phone once last December while Ezra was out getting dinner. Hardy's name had appeared on the screen, so she didn't see any reason not to pick up._ "Hello. Ezra's phone,_" she said with a perky receptionist-like attitude.  
_"Hi, who's this?"_ he asked, guessing her identity, but didn't say her name in case he'd guessed wrong. Hardy could imagine saying, "Hi, Aria," then finding out her mother had answered his phone for some reason. She did work at the same school after all, an unfortunate turn of events Hardy had thought when Ezra first mentioned it. "Aria?" she would say with confusion. "Why would you assume this is Aria? How do you know Aria?" It would have been the stupidest possible way for them to have been caught.  
_"This is Aria."  
"Aria.. how's it going?"  
"Pretty damn good, no thanks to you."_ Aria had had a bone to pick with Hardy since she found out he'd tried to talk Ezra out of seeing her. His best friend's opinion clearly mattered to him a great deal, but Aria was able to convince him to ignore it and trust his gut.  
_"Whoa, okay, maybe I owe you an apology. But you should know, since then, I've come to learn the error of my ways. I'm actually a big fan of yours now."_ Aria pulled Ezra out of his pathetic post-Jackie slump for which Hardy would be eternally grateful.  
_"Oh are you now?"_ she asked, not dropping the attitude.  
_"I am,"_ he swore.  
_"Alright then,"_ she acceded, changing her tone when she realized she wouldn't have to defend herself to Hardy or explain how she'd never intentionally hurt Ezra or let him get in trouble without putting up a fight and taking all the blame.  
There was silence on the line while they both waited for the other to speak. Aria ended it first. _"Well, Ezra stepped out.. can I take a message?"_ Aria asked politely.  
_"No thanks..." _he said. He was calling to ask if Ezra wanted to go skiing over the upcoming winter break, but didn't want to deliver the message via Aria because, knowing Ezra, he'd invite her along. Ezra had tried to convince him they'd gotten better at discretion, leaving behind psuedo-dates at college bars for quiet nights at home, even coming up with ground rules for interactions at school, but he'd told Hardy about the date in Philadelphia, parts of it anyway, and Hardy disapproved. He had asked Ezra when was the last time he looked up 'discretion' in the dictionary? Because limo rides to art events at public venues did not qualify.  
There was silence again while Aria waited for him to start saying goodbye, or something. _"So.. what are you wearing?" _  
Without skipping a beat, she matter-of-factly responded,_ "Nothing. What are you wearing?"_  
Hardy was rendered speechless. Ezra hadn't told him they were sleeping together, having been rather ashamed of himself for it, and Hardy had never asked him directly, until the next day when he called back and asked if Ezra was doing anything stupid. The correct answer was 'yes,' but Ezra told him, "I know what I'm doing," and left it at that.  
Aria, rather pleased with herself already, continued, _"Yeah, so, I'd love to chat, but Ezra's gonna be back any minute, and we're both gonna be tied up for the next few hours, so maybe try back tomorrow."_ _Click._

_Wearing more clothes than the last time we spoke, I see, _he thought, and very wisely did not say aloud. Ezra would probably try to pummel him for it, and Melanie, well, she'd probably just laugh because that's the type of girl she was. "Did you get my text?" he asked. "'It's _exactly_ what you think.' I wish you could have seen Ezra try to wrestle that thing out of my hands." Hardy had read aloud the words his thumbs were typing after snatching the phone away from Ezra. _"Wha- wha- whathefuckareyoudoing!"_ Ezra shouted frantically, grappling for the phone.  
_"Calm down, Z! It's just a joke!"_ Hardy yelled after Ezra as he ran toward the door, then proceeded to run around the block and up 3 flights of stairs.

"I wish I coulda seen it too," Aria laughed while Melanie was stepping into her sandals next to her suitcase, then hopped on one foot then the other to get the strap over her heel.

"Then he took off so fast, we hadn't even paid yet. Maybe I could bribe the store owner for the surveillance footage…" Hardy thought out loud.

"So what brings you to town," Aria asked, finally getting back to the groceries she had left sitting out. She pulled out a long sesame seed baguette, then a box of pasta and some plastic produce bags.

"The birthday boy of course," Hardy answered. He didn't feel the least bit sorry for showing up unannounced since Ezra had done it to him more than once.

"We were in LA," Melanie continued, striding over to the island they all stood around, "about to book a flight back to New York when Hardy thought it might be nice to surprise Ezra for his birthday. We don't have anywhere to be 'til Monday, so we booked the flight to Philly instead. Thought we'd order in, share a bottle of wine or three." She'd already scolded Hardy for only purchasing 2 bottles.

"I was going to make dinner," Aria said, searching for a pot. "Pasta primavera, unless you guys want something else."

"No, that sounds great," Melanie said, excited to be getting a home-cooked meal for what would be the first time in months. "I'll help," she offered, "though, you may not want me to," she warned. "Not really known for my cooking skills here."

Hardy nodded in agreement and Aria laughed. "Can you chop vegetables?"

_There's a first for everything! _"I can try!"

* * *

[In ep 2, after Aria and Ella go into the movies, Ezra does this little move, he leans back and_ totally_ checks out her ass! It is hilarious and awesome! I wish I had it on a loop.

I cast Hilarie Burton as Melanie, aka Peyton Sawyer from One Tree Hill. Pic in my profile.

Also in my profile, links to Melanie's dress, Aria's dress, and a picture of Hardy (Patrick J. Adams) in case you forgot what he looked like.

I considered splitting this chapter up to leave you guys in suspense, but the first half would have been too short. Oh well haha. Hope you liked it. ]

* * *

To Guest 1, Guest 2, Esme, Notinyourlifetimehoney, and HarryLoves Ginny09, thank you very much. To Meghan, thank you as well, and I update as often as possible. I had been updating every day, but I can't possibly keep it up anymore.

To Florence Bisson, you don't know how happy it made me to read your review! Thank you so very much and about having great taste in music, right back at you! :D  
In response to your second review, thank you again! I really love music, all kinds, and I can't help but inject it into the story. I haven't even mentioned some of my favorite bands because I don't think any of the characters would listen to them.  
I'm not sure how long I'll keep the story going. When I first started publishing, I guessed it'd be over in mid-July. Boy was I wrong haha. I originally had a few time jumps in there, but I keep thinking of ways to fill it in, so the time jumps are slowly disappearing. You'll see. Thank you for reading and I'm glad you're enjoying it.

To maddie, welcome back from camp! And thanks!

Since I've had lots of ideas and been writing a lot lately, I just thought I'd ask if there's anything you guys would like to see happen or would have liked to have seen happen that didn't. Your thoughts and opinions might spark a new idea I can add in somehow.


	92. Chapter 92

(Part 2 of 5)

During dinner, Melanie lifted the bottle of wine to pour into Aria's empty glass, taking it upon herself to correct the egregious error the rest of them had somehow all overlooked. She sat to Aria's left, across the small crowded table from Ezra, who sat next to Hardy. The pinot grigio the boys had picked up happened to be the perfect pairing for the meal Aria had prepared, mostly alone. Melanie had made a valiant effort, but when dicing carrots turned out to be too advanced, and finely chopping basil proved problematic, Aria gave her a pass to watch and learn instead, then gave her the task of setting the table so she would feel useful.

Aria held out her hand, "None for me, thanks."

"Not old enough to drink?" she asked, cocking her head, hesitantly holding the bottle above her plate, then setting it down. She could guess Aria was a bit younger, but hadn't expected her to turn down a drink.

Aria shook her head in affirmation, not that her age had anything to do with it. She was envious of the way Melanie's hair bounced as she moved her head, how it had dried into perfect shiny ringlets without the need for any styling. Her own hair required some amount of taming every morning. Today it hung in loose waves, the way she usually wore it, but a bit more tousled and voluminous than usual, an intentional styling choice. She was also jealous of how terrific Melanie looked after disappearing for like _2_ seconds to reapply her makeup earlier. It would have taken Aria significantly longer.

"What are you, 19?" she guessed.

Aria shook her head. Ezra and Hardy continued eating, waiting for Melanie to get it right and see her reaction.

"18?" Going lower made more sense than going higher and Melanie thought she'd picked the right number this time.

She kept shaking it. "Keep going."

"17!" she cried.

"Ding ding ding," Aria said, without enthusiasm.

"Ooo, a scandal. I love it," she declared, eyes wide.

"You don't know the half of it," Aria said, half-joking. Her age was the least scandalous aspect of their relationship.

"Tell me!" Melanie cried, practically gripping the table in anticipation, causing the wine to ripple inside the glasses.

Aria looked to Ezra, who looked to Hardy. "Who's she gonna tell?" he said with the shrug of a hand.

Melanie was on the edge of her seat waiting for Aria's explanation.

"Well… Ezra here," she took hold of his hand, "or should I say, Mr. Fitz," and patted it as she said, "_My_ English teacher."

Melanie gasped in delight, "Really?" It was even better than she would have guessed.

"There's more," Aria said and pushed her chair back to stand up. She smoothed the fabric of her dress down and placed her hands below the newly emerging baby bump. Ezra watched and smiled to himself. Her belly was slightly rounder than it had been even last week and though he'd never draw attention to it, he loved when she did. Hardy caught Ezra's pleased little smile.

"No way!" Melanie screamed. Hardy had to steady their glasses, on the verge of toppling over due to his girlfriend's enthusiasm. "You two really are a scandal!"

"We're trying not to be," Ezra said as Aria smoothed the dress under her butt as she retook her seat. "I am no longer her English teacher…" he began as Aria scooted her chair in and surreptitiously picked at her panties, pretending to adjust herself in the chair. "And, well, that's basically it. We try not to flaunt our relationship because if the wrong people found out.. it might be… problematic," he explained to Melanie, who was taking this information better than most.

"You've been holding out on me!" Melanie admonished, slapping Hardy's chest. "Telling me all about his best friend Ezra and leaving out all the juicy stuff!" she told Aria.

"He asked me not to say anything. So I didn't," said Hardy. Ezra appreciated it, even though it appeared to have been an unnecessary request. Melanie seemed legitimately entertained by their whole deal, the age difference, the inappropriate beginnings, the teen pregnancy, not judgmental at all.

"How long have you known about all this?" she asked, wagging a finger between Aria and Ezra's general directions.

"Since last… October," he recalled. "I came down to support Ezra reading one of his short stories at an open-mic night. That's when I met Aria. I warned him what a bad idea it was, getting involved with a student, but I could tell, this girl had gotten under his skin." He had been worried about his friend winding up in an orange jumpsuit once the fling came to an inevitable and messy end.

Aria smiled.

"Remember I told you a friend from college was crashing on the couch one week while you were in LA?" he said to Melanie.

She nodded. "The laugher."

"The laugher," Hardy agreed with a chuckle. A smile tugged at Aria's lips as she looked at Ezra through the corner of her eye. She still hadn't caught him laughing in his sleep. The night she'd slept over, she'd gotten up twice, once for water, and once for the bathroom. Both times, he unfortunately woke up too and was still awake when she returned, leaving no opportunity. One of these days she was gonna catch it, she resolved. "That was Ezra. He was a mess. Head over heels for this girl and no clue what to do about it."

Aria squeezed Ezra's hand, remembering that week he disappeared. She hadn't known what to think, and as the days passed, began to think she may never see him again. Even though he'd promised it wasn't the case, she still couldn't stand the idea he was out there somewhere hating her, forced to look for a new job when he'd just gotten the one at the high school, the one he'd been so excited to start, the one he was thriving in, and the one she was jeopardizing. She replayed every moment they spent together in her mind, particularly the last ones, and started to wonder if she'd misread everything, if he'd never really felt the same way, or if he had, if he'd decided she wasn't worth it and taken Hardy's advice afterall. She'd gone from confused to hurt to depressed to angry to pessimistic over the eventual outcome to resigned and spiteful. It was a mini-repeat of Iceland, when she'd felt different from one day to the next, dealing with the loss of Alison and many other issues. At least she had her friends around her this time to prevent the downward spiral. She didn't know Ezra had spent that awful week sleeping on Hardy's couch.

"He was ready to give it all up for her," Hardy continued. "His career, everything." Hardy had never seen his friend like that before, so confused and angry. Hardy told him to _really think_ about his next move because his decision could affect the rest of his life. Was Aria really worth it? he had asked. Ezra's answer was a resounding 'yes.' So he started actively looking for a new job, and continued even after he went back, until the position at Hollis basically fell into his lap.

"Seems like you didn't have to," Melanie chimed in. As far as she knew, Ezra was a college professor, which seemed like a step up from high school teacher.

"No," Ezra agreed, "I was lucky. I was able to get another job, ironically, with a recommendation from her father," sipping his wine. A recommendation Byron would surely retract in a flash if given the opportunity.

"He knew?" she asked, thinking, that's some open-minded father.

"No, no way," Ezra scoffed at the absurdity of that possibility.

"But he knows now?" Melanie questioned, assuming so, unless Aria was planning to claim it was a virgin birth.

"Yeah, man, I'm still curious how you're still breathing," Hardy asked. Ezra had texted Hardy the day after the long talk/dinner with Ella that everything was going to be okay, but hadn't spoken to Hardy since in order to go into more detail.

"They don't know how long we've been together," Aria answered. "And we'd like to keep it that way." This much Hardy already knew. He wanted to know how they were dealing with news of the baby, but decided not to bring up the potentially sensitive subject at dinner.

"Intense…" Melanie said, then tried to steer the conversation to lighter topics. "So this kid... where do you intend to put it?" she asked, looking around the tiny cluttered apartment.

"I thought we'd have her sleep in that drawer over there," Aria pointed over Melanie's shoulder, "for the first few months at least."

Ezra knew she was joking, even though her tone of voice indicated she was serious, and he started to nod along, being met by a rather alarmed expression on Melanie's face when she turned back around. "Babies don't take up much space," he said, corroborating Aria's assertion.

"Bro, you're not serious," Hardy said, pretty alarmed himself.

"No!" he laughed. "We're joking!" The other couple relaxed as Aria chuckled and Ezra continued, "No, honestly, one of the first thoughts I had when she sat me down and told me she was pregnant, after my brain was able to retrieve the definition of the word 'pregnant,' _literally_ was 'where the hell are we gonna put the crib.'"

_That's a good question_, Melanie thought. Not that her apartment was so much bigger, but at least it had a bedroom with four walls and a door.

"Really?" Aria said. "You never told me that." Her heart did a little backflip at the memory.

"But don't you remember?" Ezra turned to her. "I was like, there is too much crap in this apartment, I'll make some space."

"No, what you said was 'I'll get a better apartment. This one's no good.' You think I'm ever gonna forget what you said that day?" she said, taking his hand again and rubbing it gently. She would have climbed onto his lap and told him exactly how much she loved him for the things he said that day (and the days and weeks to follow) if they didn't have company, and hoped her eyes were doing a good enough job of conveying it in the meantime.

Ezra shook his head a little bit, then had to look away because the sexual tension was mounting and this was not the time or place.

Aria dropped his hand and picked up her fork.

* * *

[Okay, when Aria says, "_My _English teacher," you have to picture her saying it like Chandler Bing/Matthew Perry on Friends. "My" being higher pitched and sort of rolling into the next word which is lower. And she sounds rather pleased saying it, like she's just casually informing Melanie that Ezra is her English teacher. Does that make any sense? Haha. It is so specific in my head, I didn't know how to describe it within the story lol.

Thank you to anonymous.

GotASecret, I know! Ahhh. They are writing his character so different this season, in a good way, cuz it's realistic he'd be different being out of work. I've been telling myself it's good if they fight (and possibly break up) because if the plan is for them to be together in the end, they have to hit some rough patches, realistic couple type rough patches, beyond the student-teacher drama stuff. And if he's A... well then it's good they break up now so he can stop messing with her head, cuz it's kinda sick. I am so torn. I like the Ezra in my story better cuz he is most definitely NOT A! Anyway thanks. :)

Meghan, thank you so much for your review! That is probably the highest compliment I have ever received. People always used to say Ezria is boring, during Season 1 and 2 (and probably now too, but I don't read message boards), but I'm like use your imagination people! All the exciting stuff is happening off-camera, such as all the stuff that happens in the flashbacks of my story. I'm actually slightly bummed Aria just confirmed she never slept with Ezra while he was her teacher, because in my head, it was still possible. Oh well. Anyway, I don't think the current storyline is boring at all. They are probably going to fight about this huge bomb he just dropped on her, and sooner or later, this kid is gonna show up. Lots o' drama will ensue.

So I'll never admit the writing on the show is boring, but I will admit that I pay a hell of a lot more attention to continuity than they do on the show. (Hanna losing it to Caleb Nov. 5, 2010, not friggin' possible. Watch your own show people...) In my story, if I ever directly contradict myself or something that happened on the show, please let me know because I want this whole thing to be plausible within the context of the show (up until 2.10 when it breaks off). ]_  
_


	93. Chapter 93

PLL tonight! Can't wait!

* * *

(Part 3 of 5)

"So you know it's a girl?" Melanie asked, and Aria slipped her left foot out of the studded leather clog.

"Mmhm," she nodded and ran a toe up Ezra's ankle.

This Hardy did not know. 'Aria thinks it's a girl,' was the last he'd heard on the subject.

"My brother's wife is pregnant and they don't want to find out the sex. I think it's ridiculous," the older girl said. "Why wouldn't you want to know? I don't get it at all."

"Me neither," Aria agreed, still playing footsie with Ezra under the table. He nodded at her in agreement, sipping his wine, playing it totally cool.

"I don't know," Hardy said. "Surprises can be nice," and shot Aria a look.

"But it makes no sense," Melanie maintained. "If you _can_ know, why wouldn't you want to?" It was part of the beauty of living in the age of technology.

"I'm just saying. I'm sure they have their reasons." Hardy realized they were getting dangerously close to discussing having children, a topic which had not come up once yet during their relationship and a conversation he was sooo not ready to have right now.

"Yeah, because it's one of the '_true surprises of life_,'" she said with a patronizing tone. Aria agreed knowing was much easier than not knowing. How frustrating must it get to only refer to the baby as 'it' or 'the baby'? Very, Aria decided, having experience in this area. It was not the same at all, but A's identity being a complete mystery, not even having a gender, made discussing him/her/it extremely frustrating, not that they'd been discussing A much at all lately. "BS. It makes it impossible for the rest of us to buy a decent present in the meantime. The shower is in 2 weeks," she told Aria, who seemed most likely of the three to understand her plight.

Hardy started coughing as Aria suggested, "Books are always good. They're gender-neutral," and took a bite of the bowtie pasta. He drank from his glass to clear his throat and continued eating as Aria continued, "You could get a set of Dr. Seuss books. Or Winnie the Pooh." She hoped to stock the nursery with both series, having loved those books and many others as a child. She wanted to read her daughter to sleep every night, once she was old enough, like her parents had done with her.

"Or a book of nursery rhymes or fairy tales. You really can't go wrong," Ezra added, having had the same thought as Aria. He wanted to imbue their child with the same love of literature her parents shared.

"I'm beginning to see why you two are together..." Melanie said, letting her eyes travel in a wide arc across the room, wondering if they ever had nightmares about being buried under piles and piles of books. She was more of a minimalist herself.

Aria got the point. "You should see my room, I've got stacks of books everywhere," she said, chewing, and grazed the side of her foot up Ezra's ankle again.

Melanie smiled, not surprised. "Well it's not a bad idea," she said. "Thanks."

"No problem. Does this taste any good to you?" she asked Melanie. "You can be honest. I think it's kinda bland." Though Hardy must be enjoying it, she thought, since his plate was practically empty.

"No, it's great!" Melanie assured her. "The best thing I've had in weeks. Honestly." Melanie traveled a lot and practically lived on fast food and takeout, though you'd never guess it by her figure.

"I think it's missing something," Aria said.

Hardy thought, _Yeah, meat._ He'd be raiding Ezra's fridge later, or slipping out for a cheeseburger if he got the chance.

"I know what it's missing," Ezra said, jumping out of his seat, and the calf Aria's ankle was rubbing against remained exactly where it had been, underneath the table. Aria yanked her feet away and tucked them under her chair, burning a hole in her plate with mortification.

"I don't think it's bland at all," Hardy said with a pointed stare Aria could feel boring into her forehead. At first he had assumed the toe tickling his leg belonged to Melanie, even though it wasn't her style, then quickly caught on and decided to wait and see how long it'd go on before Aria figured it out. Three times he had to stop himself from laughing by shoveling forkfuls of pasta and grilled zucchini into his mouth.

Ezra returned, setting a little bottle of hot sauce down in front of Aria, and kissing her head before sitting back down. "Thanks," she said, twisting the cap and sprinkled a few drops, finally venturing a glance up at Hardy who had not stopped staring, waiting for the moment she'd meet his gaze so he could raise an eyebrow at her. She looked down again, feeling the redness appearing on her cheeks, then told herself, _Own it._ "Want some?" she asked, holding the bottle out towards him with an unblinking eyelock.

"No, thanks," he declined politely, grinning.

"Hm?" she offered it to Melanie who also declined, giving Aria a wondering look. "The baby likes it," Aria explained, then drizzled some more hot sauce on the slice of bread on her plate, nearly soaking it through.

"She puts it on everything. Even ice cream," Ezra told them, oblivious to everything that just happened.

"It's _good_," Aria said when a slight look of disgust crossed Melanie's face.

"It's interesting.." Ezra offered generously. Aria had made him taste it once.

Melanie laughed. "So how do you feel? Do you feel good?" she asked Aria. Her sister-in-law complained all the time, but she did that even before she'd gotten pregnant so Melanie couldn't tell how bad it really was.

"Mmhm," she nodded. "The first few months... I think I got a taste of what it's like to have narcolepsy. But now, I have all this _energy_, I don't know what to do with it."

_I can think of a few things_, Ezra thought. Hardy had a similar thought and so did Melanie. Apparently their minds were all in the gutter this evening.

"Do you run?" Melanie asked, as she herself was a runner. "It's great exercise."

"Uhh, no," Aria laughed, slipping a finger under her bra strap, which was digging into her shoulder. "I like to swim though."

"That's good too," she said, though she wasn't into swimming. The chlorine tended to turn her hair green. "We could go for a jog tomorrow, if you're free." She used the word 'jog' since it implied going slower. No matter what city Melanie found herself in, she always tried to fit in a run every morning. It kept her sane.

Ezra laughed internally at the idea of Aria doing actual exercise, on purpose. He'd walked by the gymnasium at school once and caught her half-heartedly trying to keep up with her friends running the track. Her preferred form of exercise was a contact sport _not_ endorsed by the school. Apparently her enthusiasm for that "sport" did not carry over to PE class, Ezra mused as he watched her. He was more turned on by the little outfits they were required to wear than he rightfully should have been and made himself walk away before anyone caught him staring.

Aria nodded, saying, "If by 'jog,' you mean 'walk,' then sure."

Melanie was about to agree when Hardy interjected. "Melanie doesn't do walks," he said. "You'll walk for 2 minutes, blink, and she'll be 6 blocks ahead of you."

"I'll go slow, I promise," she told Aria, laying a hand on her wrist.

Hardy doubted it, and his face said as much.

"You think I'm gonna make the pregnant girl run?" Melanie accused.

_The pregnant girl,_ Aria thought. _There are worse nicknames._

"No, I think you're gonna take off and leave her in the dust." This was clearly an ongoing argument the couple had. She may have done it to him once, or twice, or _every_ time they went for a run together. Melanie narrowed her eyes at Hardy, who dropped it and stated, "Mel ran a 5K last month."

"Which is actually nothing," she explained. "I've done marathons in the past." But training for a marathon required more time and dedication than she had to spare right now.

"I sense you guys don't go for many runs together," Aria said.

"No," Melanie laughed. All attempts at that were unsuccessful. She would get in the zone and just want to _go,_ while Hardy considered it more of a leisure activity. "He prefers to ride a bike. Rides it to work every day." She had to laugh every time she saw him pedal away in a suit with a messenger bag slung across his chest.

"Ezra too, sometimes," Aria volunteered. When the weather was nice and he felt like it, he'd occasionally ride his bike to campus. He used to ride around campus too, to get from class to class, even though the buildings weren't very spread apart; it was just convenient to hop on ond go.

Hardy mentioned, "It's the smartest way to get around the city."

* * *

Did anyone guess Aria had the wrong person's leg under the table? I tried not to make it too obvious, but leave some subtle clues.

Thank you to guest and all my other reviewers. I appreciate every single one and am thrilled every time I see the alert in my inbox. :)


	94. Chapter 94

Erhm... now I think Wren is A. Like a lot.

* * *

(Part 4 of 5)

The conversation split in two. While Aria offered to show Melanie around town, maybe take her to Hollis where she could run around campus to her heart's content, and Aria could find a tree to draw under, Hardy told Ezra he ran into his mom the other day. He was on his bike, delivering some documents to a client in her neighborhood and spotted her out walking the dog. They exchanged pleasantries and did some catching up since they hadn't seen each other since last Christmas, which Hardy had spent with Ezra while his own folks were out of town. That was when he'd gotten a taste for city living and decided to move there after graduation. "She said to tell you to come visit and bring a certain someone with you," Hardy told him, shifting his eyes in Aria's direction.

"Yeah," Ezra said, "she said the same thing to me last time I talked to her," which was a few weeks ago. Ezra hadn't been avoiding his mother, per se, but did omit certain rather important details about his life whenever they spoke. Aria didn't have the market cornered on lying to one's parents.

"She was asking me all these questions," Hardy leaned in a bit, "if I'd met her, what she's like."

"What'd you tell her?" If Hardy had blown his secret, he surely would have heard from his mother by now, Ezra reasoned.

_'She's a little minx who's got your son wrapped around her little finger.' _Or_ 'She's a sweet girl, you'll like her.'_ Or_ 'Nope, never met her.'_ Or _'She _might_ be carrying your first grandchild. Gotta go!' _Any answer would have just led to more questions, so Hardy played it safe. "Nothing!" Hardy said. "I high-tailed it out of there. Said I was running late."

"Good."

Aria was telling Melanie about her friend Spencer who also enjoyed running as a way to clear her head.

"I definitely would have cracked if I'd stayed. You know your mom has this way.."

"I know." Ezra knew all too well how his mother had the ability to get you to tell her everything you'd done wrong, like you were 8 years old again, confessing to leaving your little brother alone in the backyard while you went to flag down the ice cream truck when you had explicit instructions not to let him out of your sight.

"So are you?" Hardy asked.

Ezra gave him a disapproving look, like Hardy was the one who had been nagging him for months.

"It's your funeral..." Hardy said, then caught what the girls were talking about. He definitely wanted to take a trip to Hollis, see if it'd changed any in the year he'd been away. Hardy still couldn't get over the fact that Ezra now taught there.

There was a lull in the conversation as they all happened to be sipping their drinks at once. Aria decided to change the subject, asking, "So.. how long have you guys been together?"

Melanie said, "What is it," looking at Hardy, "'bout a year now?" They had indeed been together nearly a year, Hardy's longest relationship to date, much to Ezra's continuous surprise. Ezra had actually warned him against moving so fast when Hardy announced he was moving in with Melanie after only dating her a few months, never knowing Hardy to be so impulsive, when it came to commitment. Then how the tables had turned... Shortly thereafter, Hardy became the voice of reason, telling Ezra not to make stupid choices in his love life. Turned out they were both wrong. Now that he'd met Melanie, Ezra understood what Hardy saw in her and why he was willing to leave his old ways behind in order to maintain an actual adult relationship.

"How'd you meet?" she asked, taking another bite off her fork, which tasted much better now that it was doused in hot sauce, and lightly scratched an itch.

"At a concert in the city," she explained, 'the city' being New York City. New Yorkers tend to refer to it as if it's the only one. "I work for a record label, he had backstage passes, actually on a date with another girl."

"Ooo, scandalous," Aria said, mimicking Melanie's tone from earlier.

"What can I say?" Melanie shrugged. "I thought he was cute, gave him my number, the rest is history."

Sounded familiar to Aria, who wondered if Melanie had left out 'made out in the bathroom' between 'thought he was cute' and 'gave him my number.' She tended to leave that part out when telling the story of how she and Ezra met. "What do you do for the record label?" Aria asked, sipping her water.

Ezra didn't even have to stretch to reach the place 3 inches to the left of Aria's belly button she was scratching mindlessly and begin moving his fingernails back and forth there over the lightweight fabric of her dress because the table they sat around was so small. Aria grabbed his hand almost immediately and gave Ezra a very definitive 'no' look. It was okay to be the one to initiate contact, holding his hand, playing with his feet, but she would find it very difficult to maintain the friendly discourse while he was touching her.

"Different things," she said. "Right now I'm sort of a talent scout. Always looking for new blood this industry."

He didn't understand why she'd stopped him, but carried on with the conversation anyway. "Aria is very talented," Ezra said. Musically and otherwise.

"What do you do?" Melanie asked, tearing off a bite of bread to eat.

"She's a singer-songwriter," Ezra answered for her.

"I am not," Aria said, shoving Ezra's shoulder lightly. "I sometimes sing and sometimes write songs. It's not how he makes it sound," she explained to Melanie.

"I think you qualify as a singer-songwriter now," he told her. "Caleb sent me your demo."

"He did?" she exclaimed. "He didn't say he was gonna send it to anyone." They hadn't decided what to do with it yet.

"I'd love to hear it," Melanie said.

"It's nothing…" Aria said, modestly.

"It's not nothing," Ezra insisted. "It's amazing," he said with 100% sincerity. "She recorded 2 songs with her friend Caleb." Aria's voice did continue to amaze him every time he was lucky enough to hear it, and if their first 2 songs were any indication, the duo had a lot of potential. "Kid is a multi-talented genius. Asked me once if I wanted him to pimp my phone, I'm still actually not sure what he meant by that…" he trailed off, still wondering.

Aria laughed.

"He knows cars," Ezra continued, "and plays the guitar and writes music and remixed their demo on his laptop. It sounds like something you'd hear on the radio. Better." Ezra thought Caleb was a jack-of-all-trades and, unlike most others who claim the title, master of _all_.

"Well now I have to hear it," Melanie said, convinced. Who knew this excursion to suburban Pennsylvania might turn out to be more than a simple visit with Hardy's best friend. She might actually have something worthwhile to bring back to the office Monday morning, she thought.

Aria wasn't jumping at the chance to play Melanie her music because she knew, logically, she couldn't go anywhere with it. Not with a baby on the way. And not without the kind of ambition most recording artists had to have to break into the business. It just wasn't her dream.

"I'll send it to you," Ezra silently mouthed at Melanie while Aria was lost in thought.

.

After dinner, Aria and Ezra cleared the dishes.

"Thanks for being so great tonight, including my friends in dinner. It was a great gift," he told her as they stood in the kitchen. Hardy and Melanie were on the couch, chatting while the latter thumbed through Ezra's record collection. Ezra saw her and knew her own record collection put his to shame, but didn't mention it because the night he'd had the opportunity to browse through the numerous titles, he may have left a few fingerprints of cheese puff dust behind on the sleeves. Hardy must have taken the blame, or else cleaned it up before she got home, Ezra figured.

"There's no need to thank me," she said. "You've spent _days_ on end with my friends. The least I could do is share a meal with yours," adding, "Your friends are great." Melanie was very fun and Hardy was a riot, despite the momentary awkwardness between them. Aria decided this little game she seemed to be playing with Hardy was way too fun to be over just yet. Sometime, either tonight, or tomorrow, or some day in the future, she was going to work it into the conversation that the 2 other girls in that photo Ezra had sent, the hot ones in the revealing swimsuits, were lesbians, and let him use his imagination about what possibly went on that night.

Ezra smiled.

"You're wrong about one thing though," Aria told him. "Dinner wasn't your gift." _Not even close._

"Don't tell me you got me something else," he said, putting some leftovers into the fridge. He looked over his shoulder to ask, "What more could you possibly give me?" He literally could not think of a single thing, until she raised an eyebrow.

Ezra shut the refrigerator door and, moving closer, asked, "Is this gift… something you could give me while my friends are here?"

She bit her bottom lip provocatively and shook her head slowly.

"I was going to ask if they wanted to crash here tonight instead of getting a hotel," Ezra told her, now strongly rethinking it.

"Go ahead," she said indifferently. "It could always wait until your next birthday…" Aria ran the faucet over the dishes and called, "Who wants ice cream?"

* * *

To answer maddie's question, Aria believes it's a girl and Ezra believes Aria. Last time he spoke to Hardy, Ezra said "Aria thinks it's a girl." Aria doesn't let the little matter of not having actual confirmation from a doctor stop her from telling everyone it's a girl.  
Thank you for your review and thanks for asking! I'm always willing to clear things up if there's any confusion.

To guest: Yeah, this is the way I'm doing it though. Sorry if it's too slow. Thanks for reading.

Shout out to KatyForYou. I thought it'd be inappropriate for Ezra to mention Aria's friends being lesbians, but it's totally something Aria could get away with saying. ;)


	95. Chapter 95

Go read Chapter 24. It's new.

* * *

(Part 5 of 5)

Ezra pulled Hardy aside during dessert and his friend immediately took the hint, stating, "You're one lucky son-of-a-bitch, you know that?" which Ezra could not deny. Hardy soon after announced it was time to call it a night and told Melanie about the _lovely_ bed and breakfast Ezra had recommended. During the 'goodbye's and 'nice to meet you's, Melanie whispered, "Don't forget to send me that demo," in Ezra's ear.

"I thought they'd never leave," Aria grumbled in frustration when she shut the door. "This lingerie is _not_ comfortable. I didn't expect I'd keep it on all through dinner, and dessert!" she complained.

"I could, give you a hand with it, if you want," Ezra offered, with a finger tugging at the ruffled neckline of her dress.

"Nuh-uh. Hands off," she commanded, sliding her wrist up under his hand in a quick defensive motion, then walking away.

Aria dragged a folding chair from the table to the center of the floor. "Sit," she instructed.

Ezra did as she said and watched Aria stride across the room, and dig around in her purse, a canvas and leather tote covered in buckles, chains, zippers and grommets. She pulled out her iPod and hooked it up to the speakers on his desk. Then she stepped out of her shoes, thinking a pair of stilettos (and fishnets) would have been a better choice, but then this surprise wouldn't have been much of a surprise. She could do this barefoot, she thought, and knew Ezra wouldn't have any complaints. At the sound of the first electric guitar note, her entire demeanor changed. She went from girl-next-door to sex kitten with the flip of a switch. "Closer" by Kings of Leon was the first song she had chosen.

Aria looked at Ezra over her shoulder, then swished back over there, stopping about two feet in front of him. She started dancing slowly, swaying her hips, hitching up the hem of her dress suggestively then letting it fall back into place. She ran her hands up through her hair, making it look even more wild than it already did, and down her body, swinging her hips in little rings as she slowly spun 360 degrees around. _A striptease! _Ezra excitedly thought. _She's doing a striptease!_ And by the looks of it so far, she was _really_ good at it.

Aria held onto the edge of the island and writhed against it, then made her way over to Ezra and dipped down next to him, swiveling around on her toes, taking her time reaching a standing position again. Still moving to the music, she turned her back to him and said, "Unzip me." He obediently pulled the zipper slowly down her back, taking the opportunity to lay his other hand on her hip which she immediately batted away, then spun around to stiffly tell him "Hands. Off," her nose a mere 2 inches from his face. It was _so._ _h__ot._

She returned to her place in front of him and let the dark floral dress slip off one shoulder then another while Ezra watched intently, gripping his own knees. The tight black lace and green satin bra she wore underneath conformed to and enhanced her bountiful cleavage. She'd taken a trip to a chic boutique in town to get this new ensemble specifically for this special occasion. The dress slipped lower and lower, revealing her bare gently curving abdomen and tiny satin skirted panties. She stepped artfully out of the dress and slid it to the side with a pointed toe.

The first song faded into the next - "Charmer" by Kings of Leon. Aria began gyrating her hips, and rubbing her hands all over in a _very_ sexy fashion. He followed them with his eyes every which way they went, practically slobbering. She cupped her breasts and slid her hands down her hips, sticking her thumbs inside the waist of her panties, teasingly, then wiggled backwards towards him. Ezra instinctively reached up to touch her, but she smacked his hand away, not gently either. "Don't make me restrain you," she said and thought that was a _brilliant_ idea she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of before.

Images of being tied up on the bed, or in a chair, while she had her way with him flashed through his mind. What Ezra wouldn't have given for a four poster bed to materialize in the room at that very moment. Oh the fun they could have with silk scarves. Or handcuffs! He was momentarily lost in the vision until he realized she had backed up onto his lap, grinding around, rubbing her hands on his knees between her legs. Aria caressed his cheek with the side of her face, a feather earring dangling between them, while she continued teasing him with this lap dance. How could his hands _not_ find their way around her small frame, and slide upward to cup her breasts and perhaps free them from their satin constraints.

Aria had to pry his hands away. "You don't take instructions very well do you?" she said as she stood. It was a rhetorical question, and Ezra was in a perpetual state of speechlessness since the moment this striptease began anyway, so there was no response. She was tempted to say "three strikes and you're out," but she was having way too much fun to end this now. "You _will_ be punished if you do it again," she stated and began contemplating said punishment in case it came to that. They'd tried the spanking thing and it wasn't as hot as either had expected, but maybe it'd be more fun if _he_ was the one getting spanked. _Hmm_.

Using his knee as leverage, she dipped down for him again and, on her slow ascent up, while she faced away from him, deliberately rolling back up to a standing position, giving him a clear view of each and every vertebra under her luminous skin, he realized the tiny skirt was only covering a g-string. A_ g-string._ This knowledge was an _enormous_ turn-on.

Aria touched his face and let her fingers linger on his lips then trail down his chest, lightly drumming her fingertips on his pecs. "Take off your shirt," she instructed, and backed away.

Ezra yanked the t-shirt over his head and threw it aside. Aria strutted behind him and he twisted his torso to allow his eyes to follow. Hands on his shoulders, she faced him forward again. Her hands rubbed his chest while her hair tickled his shoulder and she breathed in his ear, "Take off your pants."

Ezra didn't waste any time following her instructions. When he looked up, she was in front of him again, dancing provocatively in sync with the music. Her hands played with the straps of her bra enticingly, eventually pulling them off her shoulders. Aria backed up to him, grinding on his thigh and said, "Unhook me." His fingers excitedly undid the clasp of her bra, resisting the urge to grab her backside, or reach around and grab her frontside. Though, the punishment, whatever it may be, would be well worth it, he mused, until she slinked away from him, then turned around. One hand kept the bra to her breasts while the other inched downwards, pulling on the skirt, yanking it down little bits at a time until it was free from her hips and dropped to the ground. A toe slid it aside to join the dress. Only the barely-there thong remained.

Aria stepped forward, positioning one foot on the chair between his legs. He wanted to grab that soft smooth leg, just asking to be caressed, but left his hands attached to his knees. Aria's free hand slid down and she touched herself, making tiny circles with her fingers, saying, "mmmm." Ezra let out a low note of suffering, using all of his willpower not to overtake her. The bed was close; the couch was closer. He imagined he could have her on it in under two seconds if he caught her at the right moment. The next song began playing - "Zero" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

The raised leg returned to the floor and she touched her fingers to his lips, letting him taste her. He sucked on her fingers greedily until she selfishly pulled them away. Aria shimmied forward and tickled his chest with the loose locks of her hair. He didn't know how much more of this he could take. Throwing her head back, she stood and slowly, teasingly, let the bra slip lower and lower, ironically, as the lyrics went "climb, climb, climb higher," sucking in quick deliberate breaths to drive him nuts. Then she dangled it in front of him with one finger, looking him straight in the eye, and tossed it aside.

She could see his erection straining against his boxers and knew his self-control wouldn't last much longer. Aria strode over to the bed behind him and sat on the edge of it, biting one finger, legs spread, she said, "Come here."

Ezra was out of that chair in the blink of an eye. He skidded on his knees like a baseball player slides into home until he knelt in front of her, yanking the thong down her legs and simultaneously pulling down his boxers. She was barely able to scoot backward an inch before he was on top of her, and whimpered at the first thrust, so powerful it propelled her halfway up the bed. Perhaps she'd done _too_ good a job turning him on because each subsequent plunge into her was harder and deeper than the last and this was going to be over in a matter of seconds if she didn't do something about it. In an effort to delay the inevitable, she pushed up on his chest, leaning up, and miraculously got him to roll them over.

Now on top, she bent her knees and leaned back on his thighs while she ground her hips down on him. Since it was his birthday and all, Aria decided to put on a real show, exaggerating her breathing the slightest bit, generating low and drawn-out moans. Ezra took hold of her hips and squeezed them in sync with her movements.

Aria removed one hand from his thigh, bringing it around to play with her own chest, then removed the other, adjusting her angle slightly, and used it to play with her clit. He let out a noiseless snort, overwhelmed by this titillating sight and frustrated by how slow she was moving. He started to pull her forward each time she ground down, yanking her towards him, again and again, and the partially embellished noises she was making suddenly became 100% real ones. He could tell instantly because her head fell back and her breathing became more shallow and the hand between them starting rubbing more furiously.

Her left hand dropped back to his thigh, using it for leverage to move even faster, his strong arms doing most of the work. "Ah- ah- ahh- ahh!" she called out and he immediately flipped her back onto her back, retaking the dominant position, and using it. He matched pace with the aggressive rock beat of the current song, "The Pretender" by The Foo Fighters, and something told him she hadn't been planning to _strip_ to this song. Aria established her grip around Ezra's solid shoulders and tightened her legs around him, which he helped her out with by securing one even higher around his waist by the ankle. It wasn't long before she came again, crying out in joy right next to his ear. With one last thrust, he came as well, stifling his cries of passion in the mattress below them.

Ezra rolled onto his back not wanting to crush her under his weight.

Gasping for air, she spoke. "Happy Birthday."

* * *

Links to all the songs in my profile. Link to the bra/panties set as well, though it's not exactly what I had in mind when I wrote this. In my mind, the green satin makes up the bottom half of the cups and black lace makes the top, no polka dots, and the skirt is not ruffly, and a more kelly green, but I wasn't able to find anything that matched. Anyway, it doesn't really matter what she's wearing in this scene, does it lol.

I added a new scene to Chapter 24. It takes place a few days after Aria visits Ezra at his office and a few days before Aria goes to Hanna's house for the swim team party. Now that we're pretty far into the story, I'm wishing I had done things differently in the beginning, so I'm adding this chapter, and may add others depending on if I ever get around to writing them. I'll never change anything, just add to it to make it better. I know it's probably annoying to jump around, so, sorry, but I want the story to be good and the beginning is missing stuff. Anyway, today you get two for the price of one. Next chapter up sometime this week.

Thanks to my loyal reviewers!


	96. Chapter 96

I'd very much like to get my hands on a time machine which could transport me approximately 5 days into the future to 8pm Tuesday evening, so if anyone's got one of those... shoot me a PM. Thanks.

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[These next few chapters were originally just a short overview of the next few weeks in their lives. It was just a few paragraphs. But then I started thinking of more and more things that could take place during these weeks, and started adding to it, fleshing out certain scenes more than others. So some will be more like regular chapters, some just a general description of stuff. Hope you like it. ]

* * *

The summer moved along at an unhurried pace. Aria continued with school and wound up tutoring some of the kids in her class. She babysat frequently, gaining more clients by word of mouth. She and Caleb worked on their music regularly, churning out half-a-dozen new tunes by mid-July.

.

Night swimming at Spencer's became a near nightly occurrence once the Hastings opened their pool. Aria loved the water and Spencer was happy to have her over to get some exercise especially since Aria never took her up on her offer to attend yoga class together. One evening, Aria scampered through the Hastings' kitchen and unexpectedly ran into Spencer's mom, sorting through a pile of mail, having just arrived home. "Oh, Mrs. Hastings," she said, wearing an lingerie-inspired black bandeau-style bikini with white eyelet trim, "I'm sorry I'm dripping, I just, needed to run to the ladies' room." Veronica looked her over as the somewhat more voluptuous than usual Aria called, "Sorry, I'll clean it up," as she headed down the hall. Though the little waterfall at the end of Spencer's pool was pretty, the constant sound of running water coming from it was... not helpful.

Veronica looked back down at the envelopes in her hand, then did a double-take at the empty doorway Aria had just disappeared through. "She's not getting fat," Spencer said, walking in the backdoor, wearing a plaid string bikini, dripping a bit herself. "She's pregnant," and opened the fridge in search of a can of iced tea. She hadn't mentioned the news to anyone in her family until now.

"Oh," her mother said as Spencer popped the tab on the can. "How nice for her." It wasn't said with sincerity, but not an insincere remark either; she used the indifferent tone she usually spoke with. Still, Spencer was surprised that was all she had to say. As she turned around and took the first sip, Veronica met her gaze for a brief moment to state, "Don't get pregnant," then walked off toward her husband's office. It was the closest thing Spencer had ever gotten to 'the talk.' Everything Spencer learned about sex came from a book her mother had left in her room one day many years ago, health class at school, pamphlets from the doctor's office, the internet, Alison, and, ultimately, personal experience. The first guy she slept with said, "You should go on the pill," mere minutes after their first time. It was not what one would classify romantic. But she took his advice and even though the "relationship" didn't last long enough for it to even become effective, she had stayed on it ever since.

.

Another evening, while her parents were out of town, as usual, Spencer had Toby, Aria, _and_ Ezra over to hang out in/by the pool. Of course Ezra needed some convincing that her parents wouldn't surprise them by arriving home early. Spencer assured him once again that even if they did, they would not care. Ezra wound up going, figuring Spencer's mother probably wouldn't even recognize him if she did happen to spot him lounging in her backyard. Veronica had attended Spencer's parent-teacher conferences strictly as a formality. She had spent about 2-and-a-half minutes in Mr. Fitz's classroom, allowing him to describe why Spencer was such an excellent student, while Veronica nodded along, checking her business email on her smartphone.

He returned from the restroom to find Aria in the kitchen pouring a bag of potato chips into a ceramic bowl, the kettle cooked kind, and asked, "Where'd Spencer and Toby go?"

"They're out front," Aria said, "saying goodnight. Toby is going to Philly with his family early tomorrow morning because Jenna's getting eye surgery," as she rummaged from cabinet to cabinet. This night she wore denim overalls over a red fringed bikini.

"Oh," Ezra said, not entirely sure if he should continue the conversation, but she had brought it up, sort of. "How do you feel about that?" he asked as she finally found what she was looking for.

Aria twisted the cap on the jalapeño powder she had located in the spice drawer and started shaking it over the bowl of chips. "Easy there," Ezra said, hoping at least one of those chips were not already coated in the super spicy dust. She grudgingly stopped, closed the little bottle and picked up a chip. "Mmm," she said when she tasted it, then licked her fingers and said, "I'm happy for her. I'm really glad that she even has this opportunity and I hope it works."

"It's supposed to restore her vision completely?" he asked.

She leaned on the counter, continuing to eat chips as she replied, "In theory. Toby said it may take more than one surgery, but that the doctors are really positive about it. ..Nothing would make me happier than to just move on. I mean.. it won't undo what we did, but, at least... at least we didn't permanently ruin her life. Hopefully." And if Jenna _was_ A, maybe she'd have less of a reason to hate them if she could see again. It could be why the messages had mostly tapered off, because Jenna was letting go of the past.

Ezra leaned on his elbows across from her, looking at her face, but she wouldn't look him in the eye. "From what you've told me, you didn't _do _anything. Do you really walk around with all that guilt?" he asked.

_It's not what I did, but what I didn't do, _Aria thought. As if she never heard the question, she said, "It doesn't matter what she's done," referring to the multitude of things Jenna had done and may have done, though Ezra was only aware of the one, "no one deserves that," with a light shaking of her head.

It was a very obvious dodging of a direct question. Clearly she didn't want to talk about it. Ezra furrowed his brow while Aria casually snacked on more chips. It seemed to him that Alison had made them believe they were all responsible for something she did and they still blamed themselves, 2 years later. He came to realize their 'friend' Alison screwed them all up pretty good and he had no clue about how she strung Emily along, or taught Hanna how to have an eating disorder, or held a secret over Spencer's head driving an even bigger wedge between her and her sister. He only had a vague idea of how manipulative she was based on what Aria had told him, and whispers around school about the girl who never ceased to be present somehow, even in death.

Ezra dug into the bottom of the bowl to find a less flavor-_enhanced_ chip. He wanted to put a hand on her shoulder and tell her she shouldn't feel guilty over someone else's mistake, but he knew she was not in the state of mind to really hear it. The girls seemed to simultaneously loathe and and worship Alison. Saying a bad word against her would not be received well, this much he could guess.

Spencer came back into the room wearing a nautical striped coverup over her black and white swimsuit. "Toby said to say goodnight for him," she said.

Ezra nodded in acknowledgment.

Spencer went for a chip, then drew back her hand when she realized the 'original' flavor had been transformed to suit Aria's personal tastes, which no one else shared, except Toby, who was now halfway home, unable to sample this spicy concoction. "Are we done in the pool?" she asked. Ezra looked to Aria who was nodding, so he nodded along. "K, I'm gonna turn off the lights back there then. You guys can sleep over here tonight if you want," she offered, then disappeared out the back door.

"Do you want to?" Aria asked, seemingly hoping for a yes.

"How often are her parents out of town?" Ezra asked, thinking back over the many times Aria had mentioned it to him. _"Oh I'm going over Spencer's tonight because her parents are out of town." "Spencer's parents are working late, I'm gonna sleep over there." "Spencer can be our alibi because no one's home at her house." _One time he had asked, "Where does your friend Spencer think you go when you ask her to be your alibi? Or do you just not ask and assume she'll cover for you?"  
"I usually ask," Aria had said, "and I told her I'm seeing someone and not ready to divulge the details just yet." It was a lie. Aria knew he was better off hearing this than hearing the truth. The last time he thought she had told her friends, he looked at her with such.. contempt. Even though she knew her friends wouldn't tell a soul, _he_ didn't know that.  
"And she doesn't ask questions?"  
"That's what friends are for."  
"And how do her parents not notice you're not there?" He didn't mean for it to sound like an interrogation, he was genuinely curious.  
"If they're home, she holes up in her room for the night, turns the TV up real loud, cuz it's not like they check on her or anything, and if they're not, she just tells her mom I slept over the next day. It's pretty pointless actually. My mom and her mom never talk. Unless we're in trouble." _Like when we're brought in for questioning for turning over fake evidence. _  
"She seems like a great friend," he had said. At the time he had found Spencer's willingness and ability to cover for them awfully convenient. Now he found it kind of sad.

"A lot. Sometimes it seems like more often than not."

"She must get pretty lonely."

"She keeps herself busy," Aria said, shrugging it off.

"Let's not do that to our kids," he said, then paused.

Aria smiled broadly down at bowl of chips, then rearranged her features into a fairly neutral expression before looking up and saying, "Of course not. But Spencer turned out pretty well in spite of it. Or because of it," Aria considered. Her family wasn't the warmest bunch, but Spencer managed to express some emotion every once in a while anyway. From her parents Spencer inherited their drive for success, and growing up in such an intense household, developed a wicked sense of humor.

Ezra nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I'd say so," he started to say when Spencer came back inside.

"So do you guys wanna stay?" she asked. "We could watch a movie."

Ezra shrugged, leaving it up to Aria, who said, "Sure, but please not The Notebook. I can't handle it." The frequent crying, during movies especially, had mostly subsided, but Spencer's favorite movie was a tearjerker under any circumstances.

Ezra silently thanked Aria for nixing that selection.

"Alright," Spencer said, "I'm sure we can find something we can all agree on," and started to lead them to the TV room downstairs.

Aria texted her mom, 'Spencer's alone again. Going to sleep over. See you tomorrow.'

Ella texted back suggesting they stay at their house tonight instead. Since this would interfere with Aria's desire to spend the night with Ezra, she told Ella they would stay there tomorrow night.

Later, Aria and Ezra took the guest bedroom on the opposite side of the house from Spencer's room and made relatively quiet _use_ of the floor before actually going to bed.

.

During Ezra's birthday dinner, Hardy had picked up on Ezra's mentioning that Aria's friend Caleb knew cars. He reminded Ezra about the '67 Jaguar his grandfather had left him in his will which was sitting in his cousin's garage in Ezra's hometown, Tarrytown, New York. Ezra hadn't forgotten about it, but was always putting off going to get it until he had a better idea of what to do with it. And he had other priorities - graduating from college for starters.

Ezra asked Caleb if he'd be able, and willing, to help him restore it, since he didn't have the skills to do it himself. His father had been knowledgable about cars, but Ezra had never taken a real interest. Caleb was more than willing and able, and jumped at the chance to work on a classic car, so one day Ezra made the trip up, a 3-hour journey, not accounting for traffic. He spent the afternoon with his aunt Shelley and uncle Richard, the evening hanging out with his cousins and even got to catch up with a few high school buddies before heading home the next morning, towing the aged automobile the whole way. Ezra did not share his big news with any of his family because he had not yet informed his mom and she would _not_ appreciate hearing it through the grapevine instead of from his own mouth.

When Caleb first got a look at the non-functioning 2-door convertible, he said, "I don't think this thing is equipped for a carseat, man."

"Sure it is!" Ezra joked, "A few strategically placed bungee cords.. we can strap it to the hood!"

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Links to Aria's bathing suit and overalls from 3.01 It Happened 'That Night', Spencer's plaid bikini from the Pilot, and Spencer's B+W bikini in my profile.

Thank you so much to GotASecret - your review made _my_ day! :)

Taylor - Wow. Thank you! That is a tremendous compliment, I don't even know how to respond. First, I'd rather not give any identifying info on this site, but I'll say I'm probly a little older than I should be to enjoy this show as much as I do haha. Second, there is no way I'm half as good as a writer as some of the authors on this site. The other day I caught up with a few stories I'd been neglecting and I was reminded of how I'm _not_ a writer haha. I might be good at this story, but I'm not a writer. And I'm not fishing for compliments when I say that, but I'll shut up now and just say thank you again. I was thrilled to read your review. Thank you. :D


	97. Chapter 97

No one's got a time machine? Well damn. Only 3 days away now anyway, I can't wait!

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Hanna and Caleb visited her father in Maryland one weekend. She hadn't seen him since the wedding earlier that year, which had gone off without a hitch. The rehearsal dinner on the other hand was a slightly different story. Hanna's grandma couldn't help making snide remarks about the bride every chance she got, and Hanna spent half the evening making friends with the toilet in the washroom of the catering hall, having consumed a few too many spiked lemonades.

Tom showed the kids around Baltimore. Hanna tried not to crack too many jokes since Kate and Isabel lacked a sense of humor, a genetic trait no doubt. The visit went smoothly until Kate tried to make good on her promise to "break" Hanna like a horse by hatching and executing some scheme to get Hanna caught with drugs, unfortunately (for her) underestimating Caleb's street smarts. Caleb could spot a scam from a mile away and Kate's plan backfired big time. She was grounded for a month. Hanna did a happy dance.

.

That same weekend, Emily volunteered for a Habitat for Humanity project in a less privileged neighborhood in the area, a cause she felt strongly about. Ezra, Aria, Holden, and Toby joined. Toby was literally a pro, so he took Aria under his wing, teaching her the nuanced art of hammering drywall. She quickly grew bored with this and went to watch Ezra use the circular saw. At first it was pretty funny, even just the idea of her straight-laced white collar boyfriend at a construction site, then as it turned out, was pretty damn hot, observing beads of sweat drip down his face and biceps ripple as they held down the powerful piece of machinery. In order to make herself useful, and not waste the day drooling over her rather enticing beau, Aria delivered lemonade to all of the thirsty volunteers, then helped out with the landscaping.

Samara happened to be volunteering for the same project. Emily hadn't seen her since A had caused their breakup. She apologized for what happened and Samara wasn't the type to hold a grudge, so they were able to catch up and work together. Remaining friendly with exes seemed to be Emily's specialty.

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(Part 1 of 2)

One Saturday, Ella decided to have an impromptu barbecue, telling the kids to invite their friends over and she'd fire up the grill. Byron had volunteered to serve as a panelist for a poetry contest out of town that weekend and, even though the barbecue was usually his department, Ella felt confident in her ability to handle it without him, or appoint someone else to the job. Mike's friend Gavin was already over and the two boys spent most of the afternoon playing videogames in the living room then left shortly after the food was served to go find something less lame to do. Spencer, Toby, and Emily made an appearance and Hanna and Caleb came over too. Ashley couldn't join because she had a lunch date with a guy who had just transferred to her branch of the bank. Ella invited the Strausses, but they couldn't make it on such short notice. She told Aria to invite Ezra, thinking he'd be her adult companionship during this little get-together, and was surprised to find out she was wrong.

Aria sat on the porch stoop, sketching in her notebook. Caleb and Ezra were in the street trying to teach Hanna how to skateboard. At first, they demonstrated how to flip the board over with the tops of your toes and jump up onto it in one fluid motion, then immediately take off. She was not able to replicate the move after many striving efforts, so after pretending to not be laughing at her behind her back, they tried literally walking her through it, turning the board over on her feet and lifting her up by her elbows on either side, recreating the relatively simple move in slow motion. Ella took a seat next to her daughter, watching the trio on the street, and remarked, "Seems like everybody knows each other pretty well."

"We all went out for pizza once," Aria explained. _Lie? Half lie._ They all _ate_ pizza together once. On vacation.

Whenever she and Ezra hung out with her friends, Aria would fail to mention his involvement in their plans to her mom, not for any particular reason, she would just leave it out. Maybe she was so used to lying all the time, the habit was hard to break.

Ella wondered how familiar you could really get with someone over pizza. She had expected this to be first time Ezra would be socializing with Aria's friends, but seemed to have been mistaken. She watched the trio some more, seeing Hanna almost succeed at the jumping move, but overshoot the landing by a little bit, and Caleb catch her as she started to fall backwards. After moving out of the way for a passing car, they attempted to teach her a simpler move, where you step on one end of the skateboard and grab the other end when it becomes vertical. Basically the _simplest_ move. The boys each gave Hanna a mandatory high-five when she succeeded, then did a little fist-bump to celebrate their accomplishment. Ella was honestly a bit confused seeing Ezra and Caleb acting like best buds knowing what Aria had revealed about her past with the younger boy.

She noticed Aria adding some branches to her tree sketch, and asked, "Have you.. told her?"

"Told who what?" Aria asked, even though she knew exactly what her mother was referring to.

"About you and-"

"No, I didn't," she said. "Please don't bring that up now. Or ever. I don't want her to know," Aria added, filling in some grass on her drawing. Her sketch pad was filled with at least 30 versions of this same picture. She would always come back to it hoping the next time she would get it right and be able reproduce the image she was seeing in her head, but she'd been at it for months and was beginning to think it was an unattainable goal.

"She's one of your best friends," Ella continued gently, "don't you thin-"

"Mom," Aria cut her off, looking her in the eye, "I don't want to be rude, but this is none of your business. I only told you because I had to." She had to shut down this line of questioning, even if her mother's heart was in the right place.

Ella's face fell a bit, deciding on a response.

Aria knew she'd been a little harsh, so she kept talking, really trying to sell it and hoping this would be the last conversation they ever had on the subject. "Look," she said diplomatically, "I appreciate your concern, but you understand why I don't want to talk about this. I'm not exactly proud of it. It was a mistake. It's over. It's my decision not to tell. Can we just leave it at that?"

Ella reminded herself Aria was capable of making her own decisions and decided to stay out of it, hoping it didn't turn into a difficult situation for her daughter down the road. "I'm gonna start putting the food out," she said and went back into the house.

Ezra helped Ella with the grill, or mostly just stood there attempting to help. He had to admit he'd never really had the opportunity to man the grill; his dad had always done it at home and no one was throwing any barbecues in the dorms at Hollis. Food turned out good anyway, if a little well-done. Aria's burger had jalapeño peppers chopped up inside and was topped with pepper-jack cheese for an extra kick, just the way she liked it.

While they all sat around the table in the backyard, filled with plates and side-dishes, such as sweet potato french fries and cajun veggie kabobs, Hanna and Ezra engaged in a rapid fire battle of wits. She hurled a few joking insults and made a few wisecracks and Ezra fired back a few of his own with equal skill. Ella had tell herself to stop being surprised seeing Ezra act like one of their peers rather than a former teacher.

Aria made Ezra's lap her chair and carried on a conversation with her friends while Ezra spoke to Ella. At one point, Spencer leaned over to Emily and said, "The lack of awkward.. is kinda blowing my mind."

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Link to Aria's outfit from 3.04 (polka dot top w/ metal fringe, denim skirt, minus the tights) in my profile.

GotASecret - thanks! And thanks for being specific about what you like, I appreciate it.

catsrcool - First, cats _are _cool. :) Second, thank you so much! I was _really_ happy to read your comment! I have been updating approx twice a week lately, more or less. I'll try to keep it up, but the chapter I'm working on now is tougher than I expected, and then there are some chapters after that I haven't actually written yet, but have an outline for in my head, so hopefully I can get it all ironed out and not have to space the updates out any further. We'll see. Thank you again! :D

**ETA** There's been some confusion about what Aria and Ella are talking about. Sorry about that. Ella thinks Aria should tell Hanna that she was dating Caleb behind her back last fall, which was a lie Aria told her mom so she wouldn't know she was actually dating Ezra at that time. Hope that clears things up.


	98. Chapter 98

Oh. My. God. What a great finale. Utterly shocking, so well done. I cannot wait for Halloween!

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Rated M

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(Part 2 of 2)

Aria and Ezra slipped away from the table and took a walk around the side of the house. Ezra said, "I still can't believe your mom is doing this," in a little bit of shock Ella had invited him over to spend the afternoon with their family and friends.

"Why?" Aria asked. It all felt pretty normal to her.

"No reason," he said. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore." Of all the scenarios which had played out in his head over the months they kept the secret, reality was proving to be better than the best case he had imagined. Byron had understandably not come around yet, which was no surprise to Ezra. He was resigned to the fact Byron Montgomery hated his guts, as well he should. Ezra just hoped it wouldn't cause too many problems, especially down the line, after the baby was born. He was sure they could come to some sort of mutual understanding in which Byron learned to tolerate Ezra and Ezra tried not to piss him off by existing. One of the less happy, but not least happy, endings had involved neither parent being supportive and leaving the two of them out on their own. They'd have been fine, he knew, but Aria would never have been truly happy being cut off from her family. As it was turning out, Aria got to have it all and for this Ezra was glad.

"I've told you, my mom is awesome," she said as she backed into the wall under Mike's bedroom window, next to the chimney. "Now. Can we stop talking about her? Cuz I wanna kiss you." She laid her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a sweet lip lock.

He loved this. Nobody's lips tasted sweeter. He felt he would have come to this conclusion regardless of the strawberry flavored lip balm slathered over her lips. She tasted like cupcakes. No. Strawberry shortcake, he decided.

His hands found her waist and could feel the the curvature had changed from even a week ago. He loved this too. Aria herself could see the slightest difference each and every day as their baby continued growing, though she was still not visibly pregnant, especially in the outfit she had on today. A hot pink lace bra was very visible beneath the loose polka dot halter tank which flared out gently in an A-line. The short faded denim skirt she wore still fit, though it rode a little lower on her hips than usual.

They smiled at each other, then kissed some more in the shade of the elm tree from the neighbor's side of the fence. Ezra knew that they were virtually incapable of stopping at _just_ kissing, so he said, "We should head back before they start missing us."

"Mmhm," Aria agreed, but did not release him. "Did I ever tell you about this fantasy I have?" she asked whilst kissing.

"Which one?" She had filled him in on a handful of fantasies in the past. Blindfolds. Check. Restraints. Not yet, but she'd revealed to him her desire to be tied up. And to tie him up, which he was quite looking forward to. Gotta try everything once, he had thought. One fantasy involved screwing on the desk in his old classroom at Rosewood High. She _hadn't_ been begging to play out a twisted student-teacher fantasy while they were teacher and student, but once they no longer were... she'd started imagining it. Sneaking in after dark, or in broad daylight; she wasn't picky. He told her in no uncertain terms to _forget it_. "Never gonna happen," he had said. Aria never gave up once she put her mind to something though, so her new fantasy involved getting him to come to her high school reunion, and slipping away during the speeches. She'd spring this one on him sometime in the future. In the meantime, she'd have to settle for his office at Hollis. _"But Professor Fitz, I submitted that paper on time, I swear."  
"I'm sorry, Miss Montgomery, I don't have any record of it anywhere. I'm afraid you've earned an F on this assignment."  
"But, but,"_ her lip quivered, _"there must be something I could do." _  
_"I'm afraid not." _  
_"I'm sure there's _something_."_ It was like dialogue out of a bad porno. He'd had a hard time keeping a straight face during this exchange when she'd turned up at his office a few weeks ago and told him to play along. Since no one was around, he "locked" the door up tight and she proceeded to give him a hummer under the desk. Then he ate her out on top of the desk again, this time holding her legs back instead of resting them on his shoulders for easier access, then they had sex on the couch. She never broke character. It was slightly disturbing, but mostly incredibly arousing.  
Then there was the domination fantasy. They had cooled it with the rough stuff the first trimester, particularly after the scare, but the doctor had said they could do whatever felt comfortable, so ever since the weekend away, they had been. She'd always liked it a little rough, and verbalized some specifics for him recently, while they were heavily making out on the couch, half-undressed already. _"Can I tell you what I want tonight?"_ she whispered breathlessly in his ear. _"I want you to pin me down, and pry my legs open, with your knee. I want to feel your fingers, in my hair,"_ and his fingers began snaking through her hair at that moment, _"and hold my head back. And I want to feel your teeth scraping my neck, like that,"_ she said because he was doing it already, _"but don't leave any marks. Not there. Just go hard, okay. And don't stop."_ She thought he would move them to the bed, but he managed to do everything she wanted right there, upright against the back of the couch.

"I wanna try it before it's not possible anymore."

This caught him off guard. How did they start talking about this again? His lips still moving against hers, Ezra couldn't stop himself from asking, "What is it?"

She knew he had him hooked. "It involves roller skates," Aria disclosed, and pulled him in a little tighter.

"Who wears the roller skates?" Ezra asked, nipping at her lips.

"I do," she replied, adding, "Well, you could wear some too, but it might make things difficult."

"That's quite alright," he mumbled, thinking roller skates were not really a good look for him anyway, and his hands traveled around her back, pulling her in a bit closer. "Do you own any roller skates?" he asked, wondering if they'd be able to execute this fantasy tomorrow or have to wait until they were able to obtain a pair. Did the bike shop in town sell roller skates? He couldn't remember.

"I do not," she said. 'Unfortunately' was implied by her tone.

"Okay, we'll have to get some then," Ezra said, kissing her a little harder. _Yes, _she thought. "Elaborate on your fantasy," he told her, having long forgotten his earlier suggestion they head back to the party. He wanted to know more so he could make it happen one of these days. Maybe even surprise her.

"There's not much to it," she said with her tongue in his mouth. "I wear the roller skates, and you fuck me, against the wall." She couldn't remember exactly when she had come up with this fantasy and couldn't trace it to an exact source, but suspected it was triggered by a line in a movie, or something she had read once. Just thinking of it was a turn-on, the idea of being on skates, unstable, always slipping back down every time he pulled away, then being lifted back up, over, and over. And over... She imagined it being against a brick wall, in the back alley of a roller rink, not that any such place existed anymore. "Well, it technically involved being in a public place, but since you're _soo opposed..._ we can do it against the door in your apartment." A stroke of genius if she did say so herself.

Ezra knew exactly why she'd taken such a tone regarding the public place. It would be one thing to get caught with your pants down in public if your girlfriend was of legal age. It was another to get caught with a minor, regardless of age of consent laws. He had refused to meet her in the ladies' room of the restaurant they dined at last week, and even though she tended to wear him down in these areas sooner or later, he was absolutely resolved to not give in. Until next year, at least. "Against the wall..." he thought out loud. "I've been wanting to do that since... practically forever." How could he forget the crystal clear image he still had in his head of pushing her up against the wall in a dark movie theatre, forcing out screams with every thrust. He couldn't.

"So let's do it," Aria said, excited by his willingness to play along.

It didn't register that she meant now. "Backwards," he added and her eyes went wide.

"Okay, whatever you want," she quickly agreed, and tried to turn herself around.

"Are you kidding me!" he laughed. Ezra realized his hands were now under the silky fabric of her blouse and literally could not remember when that happened, which was not an unusual occurrence; they seemed to have a mind of their own.

"No," she said and recaptured his lips.

He couldn't believe it. Then after a second, he _could_ believe it. This was _his_ girlfriend they were talking about here, the one whose state of arousal always hovered around a 4, the one who took advantage of every possible opportunity to get some, the one who propositioned him at that restaurant just last week.

"Any one of your friends, or your _mother,_ could come strolling around that corner any second now." Ezra hadn't completely removed his hands from around her waist, though he had sort of meant to. His fingertips were now picking at the upper edge of her skirt, gently inching it upwards. He was not doing it on purpose.

"So let's hurry up," she said and tried to turn around again, but was unable because his knee had found its way between her legs and had her pinned pretty securely to the wall, which was totally cool with her. They could play out his fantasy some other time, as long as she got what she wanted right now. So she pulled his face back down to her, prodding his mouth open with her tongue.

"Did you miss the part about your mother being 20 yards away?" Ezra said inarticulately. His actions were contradicting his words.

"I don't care. She knows we have sex." Her skirt was now hiked up above her hips.

Until this moment, he still believed she was joking on some level. Ezra finally pulled his lips away from hers to give her the most incredulous look, but his legs still had her trapped against the side of the house. "Knowing it and _seeing_ it are two _very_ different things. You've lost your mind! You really have," he laughed at her. He could only imagine the look on Ella's face catching them there amongst the shrubbery. And the walk of shame. He cringed just thinking about it.

"I don't care! I don't care!" she petulantly whinged, "I want you in me right now, we're doing this," and her fingers went for his belt buckle. The surging hormones had clearly gone to her head.

"No," he said rigidly, letting go of her waist and taking hold of both her wrists in one hand. "No, we're not."

Aria yanked her hands away. It wasn't easy and she banged her elbow into the brown siding. "Let's go upstairs then."

"No. I said no. We're not doing that," he said while Aria rubbed her elbow.

She knew he was serious. He'd probably never set foot in her bedroom again without express written consent from her parents, signed in front of a notary. After that little stunt, she realized that she had wasted a perfectly good trick. He'd never fall for anything like it again, much to her chagrin.

If her own bedroom was out, she could come up with a new location. Thinking on her feet was her specialty. "Hanna's house is empty," Aria said. "I bet we could get in the back door. I think the latch is still broken." A strong wind was known to blow open the back door of Hanna's house and Aria was pretty sure Ashley hadn't gotten around to having it fixed yet. She saw Ezra shaking his head at her.

"I won't do that. I'm not breaking and entering so we can get off." There was a line.

"So I'll ask her. I know she'd let us." And probably never let them forget it, but at this point, any amount of future teasing was worth it.

He continued shaking his head, eyes up, with the slightest smirk on his face, thinking, _we're really having this conversation..._

"She has a backyard..." Aria tried. She was beginning to hear herself and how crazy she sounded, but couldn't help it. Sometimes she wondered if this thing between them was purely chemical. Even if they had nothing in common, would they still have been drawn to one another the way they had been? Aria had thought about it once and came to the conclusion they probably would have, and probably would have wound up having a lot of angry sex. It wouldn't have ended well. She much preferred the way things were. Even if this part of their relationship did boil down to pheromones, they seemed to grow more intense the longer they were together, and that she could not complain about.

"Aria, you are not making this easy," Ezra said staring down at her with a humorless expression.

"No, _you're_ not making this easy. It could be sooo easy..." she told him with her hands on his chest.

He growled at her.

New course of action. "You would deny the mother of your children this one little favor? Do I really ask all that much?"

She almost had him. She could see it. And feel it. She knew it was wrong playing that card, the premeditation, but she could not stop herself.

Ezra barely saw her wide-eyed expression when he caught the sides of her face up in his hands and her lips up in his own. The impassioned kissing continued as her hands migrated down and under his t-shirt to his hard abs, and he propped her up a little higher on his thigh and pressed against her more firmly. Though it was warm out, the sun was not creating the heat they were feeling now.

It took about 10 seconds of this going on for Ezra to come to his senses. As if under hypnosis and the hypnotist just snapped his fingers, Ezra leapt away, leaving Aria to slip back to solid ground, and ran a hand through his hair, wet with perspiration, pacing in a small circle, shaking his head and laughing low under his breath, not at the humor of the situation, of which there was none, but at how carried away he just let himself get. He was just as drunk on hormones as she was, but he had no excuse.

"Okay," Aria said grudgingly, brushing at the front of her rumpled skirt, resigned to the fact she had no cards left to play. "Okay, let's go home. They'll hardly miss us." She realized she was being more than crazy, and could have suggested this from the get-go.

He was considering it. And realized he basically had no other choice at this point. Ella would probably notice if he snuck inside to take a cold shower before dessert.

"Go wait in the car," she said, tucking some hairs behind her ear, then fixing the strap of her halter top which was slightly askew.

They walked off in opposite directions. Aria pulled down her skirt while Ezra prayed to god he didn't run into anybody front yard.

Aria passed by her friends, gathered around the table watching a video on Caleb's phone, and went inside through the backdoor. She found her mom in the kitchen, heating up the individual ramekins of apple strudel she had thrown together. Ella really did love to entertain, even if her guests were all teenagers. Or acted like them.

Seemed to Aria like she'd have been busy for at least the next few minutes. They could have gotten away with it if Ezra wasn't so damn obstinate, she reckoned. Even so, her new plan was much more rational. "I want a popsicle for dessert instead so Ezra's gonna run me to the store."

"We have in the freezer," Ella said, shutting the oven door.

"No I want the coconut kind." She did actually. This short excursion would kill two birds with one stone.

"Do you really need that? We've got plenty of desserts." Besides the apple strudel, there was pound cake and ice cream, popsicles in many flavors, and a handful of leftover raspberry sandwich cookies Aria had made the other day.

"If it were up to _me_, I'd eat the ones in the freezer. But it's not." Ella smiled understandingly. "He's already waiting for me in the car anyway. We'll be right back," Aria said, and left out the front door.

Aria slipped into the front seat of the idling car and Ezra pulled away at once. As they rounded the first corner, Aria reached up under her skirt and lifted up in order to pull down her panties. He saw her wriggling out of them out of the corner of his eye and laughingly asked, "What are you doing?"

"Giving us a head start," she said, and he saw that the panties matched the bra. She slid them off her legs and began to hang the hot pink item on the rear view mirror.

"Don't do that," he said. "Obstructs the view." Ezra observed proper car safety, especially when he had Aria with him. Despite wanting to run every stop sign and red light on the way to his apartment, he complied with the rules of the road, to an excessive degree to compensate for how distracted he was at the moment.

Aria removed the garment from the mirror and stuffed it into Ezra's right pocket. _Deep_ into his pocket.

"Did you forget the rules?" he said, refusing to take his eyes off the road.

"Nope," she said, popping the 'p,' and extracted her hand from his pocket. They had to make it an official rule after Aria had been feeling particularly frisky one day.

It was the longest 4-minute car ride anyone had ever endured. The pair both leapt out of their seats, slammed the car doors, and literally ran into the building, to the elevator. They were all over each other during the too-short ascent to the first floor. Aria had Ezra backed into a corner, attacking him with kisses, then hopped up into his arms. He squeezed her tightly until the bell dinged and doors began to open. Ezra let go, as did Aria, reluctantly sliding to the ground, then turned Aria around by her shoulders and stood her in front of him, then dropped his hands to his sides. _People! Aaarrrrrgggghhh! _she groused inside her mind. They each flashed the elderly woman who entered the elevator a friendly smile, a miracle she could even muster one, then Aria took Ezra's hand, kicking herself for not thinking to stop the elevator when they'd first got in. His building most definitely did _not_ have security cameras. They were lucky the elevator even worked in a structure this old. Aria happened to like the oldness though. It had character. She loved the iron sconces in the hall and the mismatched panes of glass, which must have had to have been replaced dozens of times over the years probably due to kids playing baseball too close outside. The abundance of built in bookshelves was convenient and added a comforting coziness to the space. The exposed brick she liked, the exposed wiring and piping she could do without, and some crown moulding would be nice, but all things considered, Aria expected to enjoy living there, though this was _not_ what she was thinking about during the seemingly endless ride up to the third floor.

Aria yanked Ezra out the doors as soon as they opened wide enough to slip through and they raced down the hall to 3B. "I wanted to _killll _her!" Aria yelled as they ran, both laughing hysterically at Aria's inordinate hostility towards the poor woman. Ezra had the key ready and they were inside in under a second. He spun her around so fast, shutting the door and dropping his pants in a flash. And then he was inside her. A high-pitched sigh broke from her throat, and Ezra grabbed her hand, intertwining their fingers above her head against the door, bracing them with his other hand on the doorframe. He could have counted on two hands, and maybe a foot, the number of strokes it took for her to start screaming, just like he'd imagined. He hoped his neighbors weren't home.

All in all, it was rather short-lived, but so _totally_ worth it.

They had this habit of not removing all of, or any of, their clothes during these more desperate of circumstances. Aria mused over this while they took a moment to recover.

When the happy duo got back to Aria's house, Aria handed her mom the box of popsicles she knew was sitting in Ezra's freezer and told her they had to go to 2 different stores to find them. Realistic (completely fabricated) account of her frustration seeing the empty shelf in the freezer case at the first store they never went to ensued.

* * *

To maddie, Ella thinks Aria was dating Caleb behind Hanna's back last fall and thinks she should tell her the truth, but then decides to stay out of it. Sorry for the confusion.

To SolitudeMyLove, TotalCowGirl and whoever else, Aria is roughly 15 weeks along. Ish.


	99. Chapter 99

TotalCowGirl, you were my **500th review**! ! ! How awesome is that! ! ! Congrats! Thank you for being such a loyal reader and reviewer. And a huge thanks to EVERYONE who reads and leaves reviews. It really does make me happy to know you are enjoying the story. THANK YOU!

* * *

Caleb made the mistake of stopping by Aria and Ezra's apartment unannounced one afternoon, but before he knocked, realized he'd be interrupting what was a particularly vocal roll in the hay. If it were Hanna, she would have recorded them through the door and sent it to all their friends. But Caleb was not Hanna, and just turned around and walked away. And he learned a valuable lesson - always call first.

.

Ezra purchased Aria a pair of roller skates. They made good use of them.

.

(Part 1 of 2)

Caleb scored some last-minute tickets to a sold-out Coldplay concert, payment for some enhancements he made to a client's firewall. Caleb was a 'freelance technology expert,' or at least that's what he told the Gottesmans when they asked how he made money. Some jobs were honest work, fixing people's computers, eliminating viruses, etcetera. Others, not so much. These tickets were compensation for a less "legit" business-dealing.

The concert was at an outdoor venue in Philly with stadium seating. Caleb, Hanna, Aria, and Ezra tailgated in the parking lot along with tons of other fans before the show. Other concert-goers went all out, bringing lawn chairs and portable barbecues and folding tables for some rowdy games of flip cup. The four of them kept it more low-key bringing only a few nylon camp chairs, some sandwiches they picked up on the way, and refreshments. In the trunk of Ezra's car sat a cooler filled with bottles of beer, hard lemonade for Hanna who was not a fan of beer, and root beer Hanna had purchased for Aria as a joke.

Aria sat on the back bumper, wearing a white graphic tank, black vest and black ruffled skirt, listening to music pumping from another car's stereo and said, "This watching you all get drunk without me thing is getting kinda old."

Ezra, who had been laughing about something with Caleb, sat down next to her and said, "What's the matter, baby? Are you bummed out?" The boys both wore graphic tees in warm neutral colors, similar cargo shorts in two different shades of beige, and Converse sneakers. One might have guessed they coordinated their clothing this morning the way they practically matched.

None of those words were what Aria expected to hear. She laughed, "Did you just say bummed out?" and laughed some more, "Did you just call me baby?"

"Why is that funny?"

"I guess it's not that funny," she said, but he started laughing anyway; everything is funnier when you're drunk, or nearly drunk. "You don't call me that though."

Ezra tried to remember and Aria laughed again at the goofy look on his face. She liked how his lips were curled up in a smile and some hairs had flopped down onto his forehead. He was adorable.

Aria brushed those hairs back, and then ruffled her fingers until his hair looked properly disheveled. Then she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Really, what's the matter?" he asked. Beads of condensation ran down the amber bottle in his hand, collecting in a ring on his khaki shorts.

"It's just hot. And I'm bored." It was an overcast day, so it was extra muggy, and the doors didn't open for another hour, so she couldn't even go inside and let the opening act distract her. She was actually looking forward to it, unlike the other 3 who didn't seem very interested in the girl band. Aria had read a review of The Pierces' latest album, where they were quoted as saying their music sounds like 'a fever-induced, gypsy dream that you have after drinking too much red wine while listening to a cabaret singer in a southern speakeasy that is run by witches.' Seemed like it'd be right up her alley.

_Whose idea was it to come this early? _She couldn't remember.

Ezra held the cold bottle up to her forehead. "Better?"

_Actually, yeah_, she thought, but just smiled.

Hanna sidled up next to Aria on the right, cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered right into Aria's ear, "I have to pee." She wore pink capris and a white tank with a black stripe across the bottom which hung so loose it looked more like a maternity outfit than Aria's, which was not. Each piece had come straight out of her closet, except the skirt was new, a size larger than she usually wore.

"Is it a secret?" Aria asked.

The mop of blonde hair on top of Hanna's head bounced as she nodded like it was a very important secret.

"Hanna has to pee," Aria announced to whoever may have been listening.

Hanna huffed, momentarily indignant, but got over it quickly.

Ezra cupped one hand around Aria's other ear and whispered, "Stay here with me, you won't regret it."

Aria's features remained perfectly still, no emotion showed on her face. What did he mean by that? she wondered, then stopped caring, because whatever he meant, she was sure she would like it. "Caleb, your girlfriend needs an escort to the bathroom, and I, for once, do not have to go."

Caleb rolled his eyes and got up from the green folding chair, leaving his beer in the mesh cupholder.

Aria and Ezra watched them start to walk away, and saw Hanna try to get Caleb to give her a piggy-back ride. It didn't work out so well. Once they were out of sight, Ezra stood up. He propped his beer up amongst the ice in the cooler, then closed the lid and shut the trunk. He felt for his keys in his pocket, and opened the door to the backseat, gesturing for Aria to climb in, then he opened the front door, turned the car to accessory so the AC could run, then got into the back with Aria. She was suddenly very excited.

She installed herself in the corner where he seemed to want her to be and waited for his next move.

"Don't move around to much," he said. "Don't draw attention."

_To what!_ Was he really going to... in the car? In broad daylight? Unprompted? She got her answer about a second later when he reached up under her skirt and pulled down her panties, black ones with little pink skulls and crossbones all over.

He rubbed her knee and massaged his way up her thigh with his left hand. "Open up," he instructed and separated her legs. Her breathing had already sped up and he'd barely even touched her yet. One leg dangled off the seat, while the other was bent between them. She felt a steady pulsing, anticipating and aching for satisfaction. "You want me to, r-" he started to ask when he saw her nodding. Like she would ever say no.

Ezra slid two fingers in and immediately sent a shiver through her. How did he have this ability to make her feel so _good_? It was instantaneous. And never got old.

Aria shifted her hips forward slightly so she was tilted at a marginally better angle for his hand to move around. He may have been somewhat inebriated, but his fingers were entirely competent, just as capable of making her squirm as they ever were.

"Sit still," he said.

"No one is watching us," was her excuse. The car parked next to them was unoccupied, and there was an empty space on the other side. Anyone nearby would not have a clear view unless they were right on top of the silver car.

He started going a little slower and she settled down. "Okay," she agreed and he quickened the pace, sliding his fingers along her slick walls, watching her eyelids flutter and a look of utter concentration cross her face.

_Why am I using my left hand?_ he wondered, but the thought process which had led them to this place was cloudy. It would be less conspicuous if he wasn't facing her, twisting his body in her direction and holding onto her hip with his right hand, but he wanted to watch her, to read every reaction to his masterful manipulations and adjust accordingly.

The first time he'd done this, he found her g-spot, and not by accident, though it was certainly a surprise to her. She practically sang the hallelujah chorus while he had her coming for what felt like ages. As much as they both enjoyed that, she undoubtedly more so than he, now was not the time or place for such a pursuit. Speed was his main goal this afternoon. He deftly moved his fingers, more forcefully now, reaching in further to change and improve the sensations he was making her feel. She was biting her bottom lip, surprisingly silent, except for the ragged breath he could hear being forced out her nose each time she exhaled.

Then there was a loud thud against the back windshield. The unexpected noise less than two feet from his head scared _the crap_ out of him. His reaction time was slowed by the alcohol in his system, so half a second later he started swiveling his head all around, trying to figure out what had happened and if anyone was there. A group in the next aisle had been playing catch with a nerf football earlier, they must have started up again, Ezra finally figured out. It had to have ricocheted away, he thought, knowing how bouncy those foam balls were. He didn't remember what he was in the middle of doing until Aria said, "Don't stop, Ezra, I'm so close," and she was pushing on his hand between her legs. How long had his fingers been resting idle inside her? His concept of time was extremely distorted.

Ezra started pumping faster, rolling the base of his thumb around with firm pressure, then slipped a third finger in and watched her blinking rapidly and her full lips part slightly as a moan escaped her throat. The signs were all there, flushed cheeks, shaggy breath, tension in all of her muscles. "Come for me, baby," he said and she arched her back away from the door, laughing and groaning and coming at the same time. The combination was exhilarating. It just sounded so funny to her. They rarely used pet names besides 'love,' usually only as a joke, and never in bed. Or "bed," wherever they chose to make it.

He didn't stop moving his fingers until she had released her grip on his fist against her hip and slumped back into the seat. He knew, from experience, that if he kept going, he could get her to come over and over again, but time was an issue. How far away are the bathrooms? he wondered, but even if he knew, it wouldn't help him determine anything since he had no idea how much time had just passed.

"Do you feel better?" he asked as he pulled a tissue from the pocket behind the passenger seat.

"A little," she giggled. She still couldn't believe he'd just done that without any asking or even hinting and made a mental notation that a drunk Ezra was a lot more willing to let go of his hang ups about public places and getting caught than a sober Ezra.

"Good," he said, stuffing the used tissue in the small trash bag which hung between the seats. "Now leave me alone while I think _really_ hard about baseball." It was a little harsh, but it had to be said. Seriously, what was he thinking? He clearly hadn't thought this far ahead.

"Really _hard_ about baseball," she mimicked with a slightly different emphasis, and started to slip her undies back on.

Her voice was just about the sexiest thing he'd ever heard. "Seriously though, I need a minute." And having her anywhere near him, even if she wasn't egging him on, would make it impossible to collect himself.

Aria adjusted her skirt and edged closer to Ezra. "I could be _very helpful_ right now, _if_ you don't kick me out."

Ezra edged away.

Aria glided closer, up on her knees now. "Look at these hands," she said, holding them up in front of his face, then massaging her palms into his cheeks. "They are very good at what they do, don't you think?" She'd never heard any complaints.

_Yes_, he thought, imagining her small agile hands jerking him off, fingertips applying exacting pressure to all of his pleasure zones.

"Almost as good as this mouth," she added and moved in for a kiss. Her lips barely grazed his before he pulled away.

"Aria, get out of the car."

_What is the big deal?_ she thought. Hanna and Caleb wouldn't be back for at least another 5 minutes. They were parked practically as far away from the restrooms as they could get, and the line was probably out the door. "You know I could get you off just as fast," she said, like it was his last chance before the offer was rescinded.

"I know," he said, thinking, _was it fast? _When determined, she could make things happen _very_ fast. And when time was no object, she knew how to make him wait. And, yes, beg.

Aria hesitated in an odd position, balancing on one knee, still touching his face, waiting for a signal to either unzip his pants or get out of the car as he had so politely commanded just now.

_Why am I supposed to say no? _he asked himself. _Oh right, that's why,_ he remembered when some knuckles tapped on the glass behind them. Ezra put his head back, extremely annoyed, mostly with himself.

Aria turned to see Hanna trying to get her attention, exasperated by the fact her booze was being held hostage by the locked trunk. Aria realized she may have made an error in her time calculations somewhere along the way. _Oh well._

She leaned up between the seats and pressed the button on Ezra's dangling keychain to pop the trunk. "Sorry, love," she said, giving him a peck on the cheek, then rumpled his hair as she left out the passenger side.

Hanna twisted the cap off an ice-cold clear glass bottle and pointed out, "Your hair is messy." Aria did remember it getting snagged on the seatbelt at one point. "Can I braid it!" Hanna asked excitedly.

Caleb thought Aria's cheeks, which nowadays always had a faint rosy glow, looked awfully red for having supposedly been sitting in the cool car away from the heat the past few minutes. Caleb held his liquor better than most and knew how to pace himself, and thus much more perceptive than Hanna at this moment. He just chuckled internally and picked up his beer.

"Uh, yeah, go for it," Aria said, thinking it would be a good distraction, allowing Ezra the time to do whatever it was he needed to do. She could only imagine the state in which her hair would wind up a few minutes from now, a tangled lopsided mess if the difficulty with which Hanna attempted to move one chair in front of the other and still hold onto her drink was any indication.

Aria sat down in front of Hanna and let her long tresses spill over the back of the chair. Hanna's fingers worked quickly, grabbing bunches of Aria's hair, twisting and turning and occasionally yanking it. Aria hoped her new 'do wouldn't leave the area behind her ear exposed, where Ezra had created an unsightly hickey the day before. Not that she _really _cared. She'd worn a skirted swim suit the past few days to cover up the minor bite marks on her inner thighs, but knew she wasn't fooling anybody.

"What's he doing in there?" Hanna asked.

At that moment Ezra was pinching the skin under his left arm _really_ hard and thinking about how sad he was when his dog had died many years ago. "I dunno," Aria shrugged.

He emerged a minute later, having turned off the car so the battery wouldn't die, and took in a very amusing sight. Hanna had made two large braids, well, one large one in the back and one smaller one on the side of her head. The big one was what she would call a French braid, but everyone else would call an eyesore. Hanna was in the process of twisting the two pieces together so it flowed around to the front while Ezra was reaching into his pocket, retrieving his cell phone. "That's a good look for you," he said. _Click._

* * *

Of course Ezra calls Aria 'babe' in the finale. Whatever haha.

Link to Aria's outfit from 3.07 Crazy, Aria's skirt, and Hanna's outfit from 3.02 Blood is the New Black in my profile.

I should probably link to the article where I got that quote about The Pierces from so I don't get in trouble for copying it. It's in my profile. The Pierces do the theme song for PLL BTW. I thought it'd be funny to throw that in there, especially since they did actually open for Coldplay this year.


	100. Chapter 100

**100 CHAPTERS! ! !** Can you believe it! I can't, that's for sure. 100 thank yous go out to each and every reader, and 1000 to those who leave me reviews! I sometimes check throughout the day, and when I see a new one, I smile.

I can't say exactly how many chapters are left, but I do believe we are more than halfway there, so thank you for sticking with me and I hope you enjoy the rest.

A PLL-less Tuesday. Whatever shall I do with myself at the 8 o'clock hour?

* * *

(Part 2 of 2)

Aria's spirits were lifted considerably by the time the band went on. After attacking Ezra for snapping that photo and grappling pointlessly for the phone he held what might as well have been miles above her head, Hanna had an idea which had them all entertained for a while. She tried to tie a loose strand of Aria's hair to Aria's ring, then made Aria do it since it was basically an impossible endeavor to conquer whilst intoxicated. Aria guessed Hanna's motivations, but the others did not until Hanna had her lying on her back in the backseat of the car, dangling the ring over Aria's belly. "This is pointless, Hanna. I already know it's a girl."

Ezra knelt in the open doorway by Aria's head while Caleb watched from the front seat. "Shh, you're not supposed to talk." Hanna had done some Googling the night before. "It messes with the mojo."

Their eyes all focused on the little gold-ish ring. It sort of just hovered there in midair suspended by the near-invisible filament and they all held their breath waiting for it to move. Then it did, and swung in a side-to-side fashion. "It's a boy! It's a boy! It's a boy!" Hanna shouted, "I _knew_ it!" like an accusation Aria had been lying to them all. Hanna wondered if Aria would still let her dress the baby in frilly outfits if it was a boy. Hanna wondered if Aria would let her do this period. She hadn't exactly mentioned her plot to kidnap the baby once a week for fashion photo shoots in such exotic locales as her backyard, or her bedroom. This kid would grow up knowing the true meaning of the word fashion and not wear forks for earrings like her mom, if Hanna had anything to do about it.

"No, look," Caleb pointed as the ring started swinging in circles.

"It's a girl! It's a girl! It's a girl!" Aria yelled, mimicking Hanna, who furrowed her brow and concentrated on the ring again.

"What does it mean when it goes in a figure eight?" Ezra asked when the ring started moving that way. He couldn't remember what Hanna had said about which direction meant what, but was pretty sure 'figure 8' was not one of the options. Prior Hanna's little tutorial, Ezra had no clue about the ring test. He'd never heard of this method of predicting a baby's sex or any such exercise without the use of modern technology.

"Twins!" Hanna shrieked and Ezra may have blacked out for just a second.

"Good _lord_, it's _not_ twins," Aria said, shooting Hanna a look then looking upside down at Ezra whose eyes were rolling around like someone'd just slapped him. "There's only one baby in there, I promise." He'd seen the ultrasound, he knew better, but was apparently pretty gullible while under the influence.

Ezra gave Aria a chaste kiss on the lips then Aria looked back at Hanna who was straddling her legs, crouching under the low roof of the car. "And it's a _girl,_" Aria reaffirmed.

Hanna _pffftt_ed and realized she had Aria in a very compromising position. Aria didn't notice the devious look on her face though because she was too busy thinking how silly everyone was being not believing her. Didn't they realize she was the final authority on the subject? she wondered, then Hanna started tickling the trapped girl on her sides causing her knees to automatically jerk up defensively.

"Haa- nnaaa- a!" Aria pled, trying to push her away, then looked to Ezra for rescue. "He- elp me out- ta hee- eere!"

Ezra, cracking up, linked his arms under Aria's and pulled her backwards, out of Hanna's reach, to her feet.

Caleb snatched the ring away from Hanna once they got out of the car, knowing how likely she would be to lose it. He walked it over to Ezra and held it out by the end of Aria's hair, dropping it in his open hand. Ezra snapped the brown strand off, took Aria's left hand, and slipped the little ring back onto her finger, where it belonged.

.

The concert was amazing, of course; it was Coldplay.

Byron was none too thrilled to see Ezra's car parked in their driveway the next morning, even after Ella explained why Aria had kept it for the night.

Aria returned the car to its owner that afternoon and then finished what she had started in the backseat of it the day before. And then some.

.

Ella took Aria shopping for maternity clothes, though Aria wasn't keen on wearing anything labeled 'maternity.' Her style consisted of loose fitting dresses and outrageous accessories, as usual. Hanna insisted on chaperoning these shopping trips to ensure Aria didn't come home with anything too hideous. "Hideous," Aria said, "is in the eye of the beholder."

.

Ezra took Mike out a few times to teach him how to drive, even letting him practice in his car, the Toyota, not the Jag, which didn't run yet anyway, but he made it clear to Mike he'd not be getting behind the wheel of that car anytime soon. (Or ever.) When Byron caught wind of this, he showed a much stronger interest in teaching his son, effectively ending the lessons with Ezra.

The two attended a comic book convention together, a short excursion on the way back from lacrosse camp, which Ezra volunteered to pick Mike up from. Mike had no issues accompanying Aria to Ezra's for dinner anymore, even showing up alone once or twice when no one else seemed to be around. Aria didn't want to use the word 'bromance,' no, that word she would reserve for his relationship with Caleb, but was pleased Mike and Ezra got along so well.

.

Emily and her mom visited her dad for a few weeks in Texas. He was being redeployed in August, so Emily wanted to spend as much time with him as possible beforehand. Her relationship with Paige fizzled out around this time, but they remained on good terms.

Before they left, Aria went over Emily's house to spend the afternoon and finally came face to face with Pam Fields in the front yard. With sincerity she said, "I hear congratulations are in order."

"Yes, thank you," Aria replied.

"A baby is a big responsibility," Pam said, stating the obvious.

"I know," Aria said, and smiled.

.

Spencer was out of town a lot too. Melissa had her baby, a girl named Taylor, a few weeks premature. Melissa had developed a heart condition during her pregnancy, or discovered it, and the doctors had to do an emergency c-section. Aria was a bit anxious hearing the tale because Melissa was otherwise young and healthy just like herself. But everything worked out fine and mother and baby were both doing well.

Spencer and her parents went to Philly to help out since coming back to Rosewood wasn't really an option, and not something Melissa wanted to do anyway. She'd had enough of the small town and planned to raise her baby in the city.

The timing was actually perfect because Spencer had signed up for a 2-week intensive summer course for credit at UPenn to help her decide if she wanted to go pre-med, or pre-law next fall. After spending time with Wren, she started to see herself able to do the med-school thing, despite the long hours and the nerve-wracking knowledge you sometimes held a person's life in your hands. Better to get a taste of it now than to find out you picked the wrong track later on, she figured. And getting a few credits under your belt ahead of time was practically a requirement if she wanted to continue to be a standout student at university the way she was in high school.

.

Not much progress was made in the way of Byron's attitude toward Ezra or the pregnancy. He was still uncommunicative and distant around Aria, and was scarcely around, specifically on those occasions Ella would have Ezra over for dinner. Ella had coaxed him into attending marriage counseling together though, so Aria had hope for the future.

* * *

I wrote that Spencer took a course at UPenn long before she said that was her dream school on the show. ;) At the time I wrote this, I strongly suspected Melissa wasn't really pregnant (because she looked like the Black Swan), but chose not to include this in my story. I'm still waiting for a better explanation of why she would fake a pregnancy because all I can think of is she's nuts. Actually, I do have other theories, I just want to know the truth.

The ring test is a real thing, you can Google it if you've never heard of it. Some people swear by its accuracy. I think the fact that some sources say side-to-side equals boy, and others say it equals girl, speaks volumes.

To Guest. You will get your wishes.

To Meg. Ha, that's what these 5 chapters were originally, just one really short chapter where we skip a month or so, but then I started seeing it as a wasted opportunity, and these scenes had been forming in my head, and I was able to include certain things in them which I had been wanting to work in, so yeah, the time jump thing didn't work out so well haha. I know the story is long and goes slow. It won't be 300 chapters though, I promise. Thanks so much for your review!

To Maddie. No prob. I encourage questions anyway since I tend to forget readers don't know every detail frontwards and backwards like I do haha.


	101. Chapter 101

I wrote this chapter for **Maddie**, a loyal reader and reviewer who gave me the original idea. Feel free to thank her if you like it.

* * *

(Part 1 of 2)

One Monday evening, Ezra and Aria took Mike and his friend Gavin to the movies to see Super 8, a sci-fi thriller which had been out a few weeks already and none of them had seen yet. Mike had filled Gavin in on the situation over a month ago, that Ezra used to teach at the high school, got his sister pregnant, now took him to baseball games and had taught him how to play poker, you know, the usual. "It's all very hush hush," Mike had said, "except it's not, because no one cares." Still, as not weird as it was to Mike, he had told his friend not to tell anyone who Aria's boyfriend was once school started up again because they didn't want people making a big deal.

They went to a theatre in another town; Aria and Ezra never went to the Rosewood Movie Theatre because they would likely run into people they knew. While Ezra and Mike stood on line at the concessions stand, debating about popcorn and candy, Aria waited by the door to the dimly lit theatre with Gavin.

"So what's that like?" he asked, pointing at her stomach. Tact wasn't Gavin's strong suit. Aria's belly stuck out a few inches, though it was barely noticeable under the very loose dip-dyed sleeveless blouse she had borrowed from Hanna's closet.

How do you describe pregnancy to a teenaged boy? _It's amazing, there's this new life growing inside you, it's like a miracle,_ would probably be met with an eye roll or a gagging gesture. She could tell the truth, how her back hurt almost all the time, unless she was swimming or someone was massaging it, and how freaking annoying it was that her fingernails kept breaking, and all the other weird and unpleasant side-effects.

Or she could mess with him. "It's cool," she said casually. "She talks to me, you know? She says, 'mama, I want some doritos,'" Aria said using a high voice, "and I say, 'no, we just ate,'" she continued with a lower more stern-sounding voice, looking down at her belly, "then she says, 'but mama, I want some doritos,'" using the little girl voice again.

The look on the brown-haired boy's face was priceless, like Aria had just escaped from the loony bin and he might have to go break the news to Mike that his sister was certifiably insane.

"I'm just messing with you," she said. "She doesn't talk to me. I'm not a crazy person." Gavin seemed to relax a little bit. "But sometimes I do get this really strong desire to eat something really random and I can't stop thinking about it 'til i get it," Aria added. Maeby always got what she wanted. The craving, whatever it might be, would never completely go away if that particular food wasn't available at that particular moment; it would lay in wait until the opportunity to get it came around. One day she desperately wanted to try the Ben and Jerry's flavor called Late Night Snack since the sweet and salty and crunchy and caramel-y and chocolatey combination sounded to die for, but it was hard to find and it took a week and a half to get her hands on a pint. Well worth the wait. Recently she'd had a craving for figs. She wasn't even sure if she'd ever tasted a fig before, but knew she had to have some. However, figs were not in season yet, so she would wait, patiently, until the first shipment showed up in the produce aisle of the grocery store, at which time she would buy them all.

"Sounds like you're describing everyone I know." Every teenaged boy he knew.

Ezra and Mike had returned with two popcorns and caught the tail end of Aria's statement. Mike interjected, "Random and disgusting. I watched her eat green beans straight out of a can the other day. Without even heating it up. I thought I was gonna hurl."

At the time, it was practically the greatest thing she'd ever tasted. Now, thinking back, it was pretty gross.

Gavin made a disgusted face while Ezra laughed and Aria shoved Mike in the arm. _Green beans, ew,_ Gavin thought. He didn't know anyone who would do that. Now if it were spaghettios...

"She ate half a jar of peperoncini last week. In one sitting," Ezra told the boys, now holding hands with Aria. He didn't mention the events leading up to this mini-binge. The night before, he'd used the end of another jar of the peppers for dinner, adding them to a dish with Italian sausage. When Aria came over and saw they were gone, she was inconsolable, crying like it was the end of the world, and didn't get over it until Ezra had come back from the store with a brand new jar.

"Hot peppers," Aria explained when Gavin looked confused. It wasn't her finest moment.

"Come on, we're missing the previews," Mike said, and they all went inside.

The large-ish theatre was virtually empty; it was a Monday night after all. Mike and Gavin took some seats in the back corner because Mike didn't like to sit too close to the screen. An elderly couple sat towards the back on the left side, and a group of 3 teenagers, 2 boys and a girl, sat up front. Aria pointed at an extra wide handicap seat towards the middle, the perfect size for two people. "We'll move if someone needs it," she said, though it was unlikely to happen based on the existing turnout.

While the previews played, they found a comfortable position sitting side by side with his arm over her shoulder, and he held the bag of popcorn on his lap with the other hand. Aria turned to face him and planted a kiss on his lips with a smile.

A few modest smooches later, Ezra asked, "Do you want some of this?"

"Not really," she said.

"Oh, I got it for you." He wasn't really in the mood for popcorn. Usually he didn't get any at the movie theatre, but would often make it at home when they sat and watched a DVD. There was no reason for this idiosyncracy he could think of, just a quirk in his personality.

"I brought this candy," Aria said, digging in her bag for the brown plastic package covered in Icelandic writing containing the licorice and coconut-flavored candies Ezra had gotten for her at the beginning of the summer.

She started to open it up and Ezra said, "I won't be kissing you again if you eat that. Fair warning."

Aria paused and considered her options. She looked back and forth between Ezra and the candy, then chose Ezra, preferring the taste of his lips to the chewy confection at the moment. Aria tucked the package back into her purse on the seat beside them while Ezra placed the paper bag on the floor away from their feet. The trailer currently playing was for an overrated action movie coming out next month which neither of them would be seeing. Aria smiled at him and he kissed her bottom lip, gently tugging on it, sending a tingle up and down her spine.

Why did he have to kiss her like that? And have that delicious little bit of saltiness on his lips from the piece of popcorn he must have snuck when she wasn't looking. It was too damn romantic of a kiss for a movie theatre and he should have known that.

Ezra found making out during the previews to be acceptable behavior - it was dark, they weren't missing anything, not many people were around, and they were not in the direct line of sight of her brother... or were they? That would actually be pretty rude, he thought, remembering how not fun it was when Hardy brought a girl to the movies and made out with her the entire time while Ezra sat uncomfortably in the next seat with his date. It'd have been worse if the girl was his sister. So Ezra turned to look over the back of the seat to check. Neither Mike nor Gavin were paying attention. He paused, about to ask Aria a question, but forgot all about it when her lips were on his again, licking them softly, requesting entrance which he granted, as he always did.

The kissing continued for the remainder of the previews and they didn't notice the opening credits begin. Well, Aria noticed, but couldn't care less. She had wanted to see this movie, but couldn't for the life of her remember why.

Ezra could tell things had gotten too heated when he noticed his hand tickling it's way up under her shirt. "W-wait, we have to stop," he whispered.

"Why?" She was extremely disappointed to not feel his warm hand pawing at her back anymore.

"I-I think that's the principal," he said in a hushed tone, looking at a woman in her mid-50s treading down the aisle to join a man, her husband, towards the front. He must have entered the room while they were... busy.

Aria snapped her head in that direction. "It is not!" she exclaimed, but barely any sound was made. "Last I checked the principal was not blonde. Or a woman."

Well it got her attention anyway. "No, but we really have to stop."

Her lips were on his cheek when she said, "I don't want to stop."

When had he heard that before...? "No, you never do," he whispered while she nibbled on his earlobe. "But at this rate," he took her face in his hands, "we'll both be thrown out of here, and/or arrested, for engaging in a lewd act in public."

Sounded like fun. Aria bit her bottom lip. "Let's sneak off to the bathroom," she said nearly inaudibly.

He heard her. "That's still public," he said dismissively, looking sideways at the movie screen trying to gather what he may have missed so far.

Pretty much what she'd expected to hear. "I'll be quiet.." she promised, grazing her teeth against the place where his jawline met his neck, rough with stiff little hairs which had been shaved this morning.

Ezra let out a single puff of air as laughter. "You don't know the meaning of the word," he said into her ear.

"Sometimes I'm quiet," she shrugged.

"Yeah, but not on purpose."

_True. _When he was doing to her what he did so well, she had no control over what sounds she made or did not make. Aria had to laugh a little bit too and brought her lips to his again, enveloping them with her own before slipping her tongue inside.

It would have been easier to stop if her tongue didn't taste so good. Again his actions contradicted his words as he reciprocated the kiss and pulled her in closer. He came to grip a handful of hair behind her head, and wrapped his other hand around her rapidly diminishing waist. Aria held his face, plying his tongue with a deep thorough kiss, inhaling the oxygen necessary to keep going. Her heart was racing and the need was stirring. What would it take to get him to follow her outside? A lot probably.

To Ezra, this inability to move past this stage felt a lot like when they were first together, but not sleeping together. He always tried not to let it get that far, and so did she technically, but it was so very easy to get carried away with an attraction as strong as theirs. They would sit together on the couch and someone would initiate the kissing, and a hand would wind up on her chest for some over the shirt action. Usually they'd know when to stop, but once, they were in the midst of a heavy make-out session and Ezra found himself on his back. Aria was on her hands and knees on top of him and his hands were caressing and squeezing her ass over her jeans, so round, so firm, just begging to be touched. He wanted to unbutton her jeans and slip his hands inside to get some of the skin-on-skin contact he craved. He wanted to run his fingers around and touch her wetness, and be inside it, and as soon as he realized what he was thinking about and what it was doing to him, he slid out from underneath her in a hurry. She thumped down onto the cushions on her back, thoroughly disgruntled by the sudden lack of contact. "I'm hungry," he had said as he stumbled toward the kitchen. "Do you want something to eat?" he asked with his head in the fridge scanning the empty shelves, and they both ignored the elephant in the room while deciding on what to do about dinner.

The increasing urgency of this deeply passionate kiss eventually became abundantly apparent and Ezra forced himself to push her away. "Aria, we're stopping now." His voice was very low, but stern, with a finality in his tone. "I did actually want to see this movie you know," and now a train was exploding on screen and Ezra had no idea what was going on. Sitting in that chair was a terrible idea. The lack of an armrest separating them left too many options available to his wandering hands. And it felt too much like the sofa at home, where they did tend to get more carried away than anywhere else.

Aria took a deep cleansing breath. It didn't help. She faced herself forward and ran her fingers through the back of her thick hair, attempting to fluff out the strands Ezra had been squeezing. She wished she could fast forward to the moment in time when he was pulling it again and her legs were wrapped around his naked sweaty body and her fingernails were digging into his shoulders and he was panting in her ear as he pushed her higher, and higher, and higher, towards ecstasy.

_I think about sex way too much_, she thought, trying to remember if a full hour had ever passed over the past weeks when her mind was on something else. Even during class, she'd find herself fantasizing about the things he could make her feel while she was supposed to be concentrating on the teacher's words. Aria thought again about the daydream that caused her to miss an entire lesson on logarithms earlier today, visualizing his knees against her back, bracing herself against the wall, riding his tongue the way she would ride a certain other part of his anatomy, unable to breath, or think, or... All it took was thinking about it to make her want it again. And if they hadn't gone to see this stupid movie, they could be doing it right now. _Okay, time to get a grip_, she told herself as her stomach rumbled.

Aria rubbed her belly and removed her other hand from Ezra's thigh. She wasn't aware of how she had been rubbing it, at first his knee, then meandering upward and kneading his thigh harder and harder while she was envisioning their next energy-expending calorie-burning stamina-demanding encounter. He had been about to suggest they move to some regular seats, perhaps leaving an empty one in between for good measure, when she stopped using his leg to work out her sexual frustration on her own and reached into her bag for the vile candy she incomprehensibly loved so much. Once she ate the first piece, he knew he was safe.

* * *

Link to Aria's outfit from 2.23 Eye of the Beholder minus the fish sweater in my profile. I couldn't bring myself to have her wear that in my story, it's too ridiculous haha, plus she wouldn't fit into it by the time it's cold enough to wear. Anyway, she's wearing the black leggings, boots and blue suede fringed bag, with Hanna's top from 3.01 It Happened 'That Night'.

That was it for the "time jump"/overview chapters. We're back to the regular format for now.

To maddie, thank you and thank you again for giving me the idea for this chapter. It worked out really well because then I wrote the next chapter and was able to include some things I thought the story was missing. If you do want to reread the story (which is a huge compliment!), I'd wait til it's all over with, then go back. I think it would be better that way because I leave a lot of hints and clues and foreshadowing of things which are probably easier to pick up on the second time around. Just a suggestion. ;)

To Prettylittletale, thank you so much! Your review means a lot. :)


	102. Chapter 102

(Part 2 of 2)

After the movie, while Aria used the bathroom, and the boys fed some quarters to an arcade game in the lobby, Ezra took out his phone. '1 new voicemail' it read. Before he listened to it, he navigated his way to the app which allowed him to transfer money from one bank account to another and moved about $20 to the account entitled "Maeby." Aria had treated them to this night out.

They dropped Gavin home and pulled up outside the Montgomery household. "Will I see you tomorrow?" Ezra asked as Mike hopped out the back.

"Come inside," Aria said. "He's not home." 'He' meaning Byron. His car was nowhere to be seen.

Ezra vacillated for about a second then turned off the engine. He wanted to talk to Ella anyway.

Aria led Ezra up the walk and into the house. "Do you want some ice cream?" she asked as they entered the foyer.

"No.. thanks," he said, spying Ella in the living room. "Give us a minute, k?"

"Okay," she agreed, curious what Ezra needed to talk to her mother about, but simultaneously drawn to the freezer where the rocky-road lived. Mike was already in there, bowls stacked on the counter, pulling all the fixings for ice cream sundaes out of their various shelves and cubbyholes.

Ezra smiled at Ella who was curled up in the big armchair with a book, reading by the light of a floor lamp. "How was the movie?" she asked.

"It was great." _What we saw of it_, he thought as he gestured for permission to take a seat in the adjacent chair. Ezra was actually able to catch up once Aria learned to keep her hands to herself. "Really well-made, you should try to see it before it's out of theatres." He almost said something about nostalgia for the 70s, the decade during which the film took place, but didn't think Ella would appreciate it, and probably accuse him of calling her old.

As Ezra pulled the chair closer to face Ella, Ella had the fleeting thought that Ezra was about to ask for Aria's hand in marriage. It was something about how serious he seemed beneath the casual friendly exterior and how he had come in there alone, seemingly with a purpose. _I'm not ready for this,_ she thought as she set down the book and said, "I'll probably wait for the DVD."

Ezra nodded. "Were you at the gallery today?" he asked. Ella had gone back to working full-time at the gallery on Main Street during the summer months.

Okay, she thought, get the requisite small talk out of the way first. "Mmhm, we acquired some new pieces from a very promising young artist, he was originally from Denmark," she blathered, "very bold, very dramatic," meanwhile waiting for him to get to the point.

"Paintings?"

"Mixed media. You should stop by to see it."

"I will," Ezra said brightly.

"So what's up?" Ella asked, changing the position of her legs, rewrapping the blue waterfall cardigan around herself. Clearly there was something on his mind, or else why wouldn't he be in the kitchen with the kiddies, who at this moment were making quite the racket fighting over the whipped cream.

"I wanted to ask you something," he said, and Ella braced herself for the question. If it was what she thought it was, she would not be signing the consent form without a loooong, long long long _long _conversation with her daughter first. "Can I take Aria to New York this weekend?"

Ella breathed a sigh of relief. "What's in New York?" she asked with a friendly tone.

"My mother."

"Oh," Ella had to laugh the way he said it. She resisted the urge to correct, "may I," like she did with her students at school. Instead of giving him an answer, she said, "You don't talk about your family much.. I never asked because I thought you might not be on good terms."

"Oh, we're on good terms," Ezra said, shaking his head to show Ella she'd been mistaken.

"What about with your dad?" Ella knew Ezra's parents were divorced since he had mentioned it once back when they used to eat lunch together at the high school. Since then, Ezra would mention his dad in passing, but Ella was unsure of the situation. She had checked with Aria to make sure he was not deceased, so she didn't put her foot in her mouth one day. Aria had said, "He's alive, but Ezra never really talks about him."

"We're on.. no terms, but there's no bad blood there," he assured her. "So I wanted to ask you about this weekend because I know we won't have the opportunity to be so spontaneous in the future," bringing the conversation back from the tangent. Ezra had gathered babies and spontaneity did not mix.

"Is that your idea of spontaneous?" Ella laughed. "We picked up and moved to _Iceland _in fewer days."

Ezra didn't know what to say to that. He still wasn't used to the way Ella would make fun of him, to his face, though he had no reason to be surprised by it; she'd done it long before she knew anything about him and Aria. Once at school, he found her sitting in the seat he usually sat in and made some comment about it, not being passive-aggressive, he just had the tendency to speak without thinking sometimes, though he was fairly vigilant about not making reference to his girlfriend in any capacity. Ella had said, "Are we going to have a turf war?" ready for a fight. She was very quick, had a very deadpan sense of humor, which came in handy in the classroom.

"Well, that's a sight exaggeration," she corrected herself. "From the day we decided to go, to the day we arrived.." she thought back, "it was about a week." The most hectic week of her life.

"Why so quick?" he asked.

"Well," Ella sighed, taking a more serious tone, "after Alison, we wanted to get out of here, for Aria's sake, and Byron had been entitled to that sabbatical for years, but never had a good enough reason to take it until then."

Ezra nodded sympathetically.

"Can I ask you something?" Ella said. "Does she talk to you about Alison?" She tried not to get involved in their relationship, but wanted to know that Aria was _okay_ now, whatever that meant, nearly 2 years after the death of her friend.

"She has, some, not much," Ezra answered, scratching his knee.

"To me either," she said, unsettled, "not much."

"I think she talks to her friends though," Ezra said to make Ella feel a little a little better. "They get it more than we ever could." Ella seemed to agree. "I mean, well, you knew her, I never did," he said, wishing perhaps he'd gotten a chance so he might understand what Aria and her friends had gone through a little better. "I attended the funeral-"

"You did?" Ella asked. She didn't recall seeing him there, though she didn't know him at the time, so may have and wouldn't remember.

"Yeah," and made what at the time he had considered a big mistake, and still did on some levels, but would never go back and change it even if he had the chance. "All the other teachers were going, it seemed wrong to not show up. From what I'd heard people saying.. Alison seemed like.. a very special girl." Ezra had been surprised by some of the things he overheard. Usually one does not speak ill of the dead, especially at their funeral, but certain attendees seemed to have no problem with it.

"Special," Ella repeated. "That she was." And troubled.

Ezra understood better than Ella knew, knowing Alison's role in the Jenna incident. "It's strange, never having met her, hearing everything secondhand. Sometimes you'd never guess they're talking about the same person. Even when Aria's talked about her.."

"I know what you mean. She was definitely multi-faceted." In many respects, Alison was a good influence on Aria. Aria didn't have many girls for friends until Alison, and by extension Hanna, Spencer, and Emily. Aria was what Ella described as a free spirit. Growing up, the other girls thought she was too weird, but the boys didn't seem to care, particularly Holden. However, Alison had a mean streak and a manipulative nature, which Ella saw clearly, but it was not as if she could choose her daughter's friends for her. "One day she was here.. and the next she was gone.. It is your worst nightmare, your child disappearing in the middle of the night.." Ella trailed off, reliving the nights she stayed up worrying the same thing could happen again, to her own children. "I'm sorry," she said, realizing that was a pretty terrible thing to say to an expectant parent, supposed to be filled with joy, not fear. "I'm sure that's exactly what you want to hear."

It wasn't, but made Ezra more glad than ever the person responsible was no longer a threat. "It's okay," he shook his head, "I can't imagine what you all went through, her family especially." What seemed like ages ago, but what was actually only months, Ezra sat in this same room making small talk with Alison's older brother. Though he could sense something off right away, he did actually feel for the guy, in theory at least, not wishing that sort of tragedy on anybody.

When had the conversation turned down this dim path? he wondered, then remembered why Ella had brought it up. "I think Aria's fine. And I think her writing is a real outlet," he continued. "..She let me read something once, a short story. It was very... dark, but excellent," he added, "I'm sure you know," with a gesture towards her. Ezra held back the detail that Aria showed him this story nearly a year ago.

Ella nodded in acknowledgement, but the truth was Aria rarely showed her mother anything she had written. Actually basically never. Ella knew Aria had a gift based on her school assignments, but not until Aria had begun writing music had Ella been let in on the personal side of her writing. And not because Aria ever rushed downstairs to show her some new lyrics. No, it was because she could hear her singing them through the walls.

Besides sharing her writing, Aria did tell her mother basically everything, barring details about some less than legal Icelandic activities, and certain stalkers she may or may not have.

They talked about the baby once and Aria explained how it made her feel, sitting in the chair Ella sat in now, hugging her stomach, she said, _"I'm still amazed by it every day, like I'm part of something really special, and there's this little girl, barely the size of my own fist yet, but she's in there, and she's all mine."  
"She's_ _not_ all_ yours,"_ Ella had corrected, though she knew what Aria meant.  
_"Well for now, she's all mine and I just love her so much."  
"I remember,"_ Ella said,_ "I loved you just as much."_  
_"Even though I was an accident."_  
Ella rolled her eyes. _"Why do you care?"_ She never hid the fact that Aria's existence may have shortened the length of her engagement, but didn't get why Aria seemed to enjoy bringing it up.  
_"I don't, but mmm-"_ she almost said Maeby, _"my baby's an accident and she's the best thing that ever happened."_

"She said it helped because once it was on paper, it couldn't be all bottled up in her head anymore."

Hearing Aria and Mike still goofing around in the kitchen, they both suddenly felt uncomfortable talking about Aria behind her back like this. Ella and Ezra both shifted in their seats and Ezra said, "So New York?"

"Oh, I don't have a problem with it," she replied as if this question had already been answered.

Ezra smiled in thanks. "I was thinking we could leave straight from school Friday, or if it's okay with you, that morning instead," to make it more of a 3-day weekend. Ezra wasn't scheduled at the tutoring centre this upcoming Friday. "She doesn't seem to have a problem keeping up, I don't think she'd miss much, but wanted to ask you first before I brought it up."

"Do you mean skipping school or going to New York?"

"Going to New York. I haven't asked her yet."

"Oh. Why not?" Ella inquired, not that she didn't appreciate being asked first.

"Because I wanted to ask you first." _Didn't I say that already?_ he wondered, then realized he'd interpreted the question wrong. "Oh, I just got a voicemail. My mom has been pestering me to come up for a visit and she might actually kill me if I don't bring Aria."

Ella laughed. "Well, I wouldn't want anything like that to happen. Work it out with Aria then give me the details," she said like it was a trivial matter. What reason did she really have to object? Aria missing school - not a problem as long as she made it up. Sleeping arrangements - didn't much matter anymore. Safety in the big city - there was no doubt in Ella's mind Ezra would ever let anything happen to her. Byron would object, but she already knew exactly how that conversation would go. _"Ezra's taking Aria to New York this weekend to meet his mother."_ Byron would just shake his head annoyed and leave the room. She would bring it up at marriage counseling and he would shut it down, if his behavior during their first session was any indication.

"Great. Thanks," Ezra said, and sat back in his seat. Now that he'd asked Ella what he came in to ask, he wasn't sure what to do next, always feeling as though he were on thin ice just being there. "Are you enjoying the book?" Ezra asked, recognizing the cover as Leonard Adams' latest, the author who had caused that initial dispute between himself, Byron, and Ella.

Ella made a face, not quite rolling her eyes, but almost. "On the fence. Have you read it?"

"Not yet," he shook his head as Mike bounded into the room and punched Ezra in the shoulder to get his attention.

"Black Ops?" the younger boy asked.

"No, I should get going," Ezra said and stood up. "If we start that now, I'll get sucked in and probably never leave." That's what had happened last week. He had come over in the afternoon, intending to at least pretend to help with dinner, but Mike lured him upstairs, where he sat for 3 hours playing the first-person-shooter game, losing track of time completely until Aria finally dragged his ass out of there. There was a reason he didn't have his own gaming console at home, because he'd probably never stop playing.

"K, whatever, g'night," he said over his shoulder. The others heard his feet thudding up the stairs and Aria's light footsteps as she entered the room, with a blue suede fringed purse hanging off her shoulder.

She slipped an arm around Ezra. "Mom, I wanna go home with Ezra." No need to go into detail, or phrase it like a question. Aria kept it short and sweet. Apparently she'd gotten over her reluctancy to essentially ask for permission to have sex with her boyfriend.

"You have school in the morning."

"I know."

It was an awkward conversation to be present for. A full second passed while Aria basically stared down her mother, tapping her foot waiting for an answer. "I'll drop her," Ezra offered before he could stop himself. Turning to Aria, so he didn't have to see the look on Ella's face, he added, "Or you can have the car, I don't need it 'til 3."

"See, there's no problem," Aria said to her mom. She was straddling this place between teenager and adult, wherein she wasn't quite ready to let go of all the things that came with being a teenager and wanted to show her mother she wasn't in too much of a rush to grow up and leave home, but also fully capable of being an adult and handling all the responsibilities that came along with it. And dammit, if she wanted to go home with and screw her boyfriend 'til he couldn't see straight, then fall asleep in his arms, a simple pleasure she rarely got to enjoy, then she was damn well gonna.

Ella remembered vividly why the middle months of pregnancy were called "The Honeymoon Trimester." In fact hers, the first time around, took place during her actual honeymoon. Ella bobbled her head and said, "Go ahead. Out with you," and shooed them away.

"Thanks, mom," Aria smiled and leaned down to give her a quick hug, "Love you, bye."

"Love you too," Ella said, pulling her feet back up onto the cushion at the same time Ezra said, "Goodnight," and the lovebirds headed out the door.

As they slid into their respective seats and fastened their seat belts, Ezra said, "So how do you feel about taking a little trip this weekend...?"

* * *

[I am under the impression Ella and Byron attended Ali's funeral even though we didn't see them there. How could they not? I think they weren't in those shots because they were in the episode a lot already and it would be a waste of the actors' time to just mill around in the background. In my mind, when Ella texts Aria, it's to let her know she's arrived, or something like that. I can't imagine they didn't attend. ]

To Emma: Thank you!

To Notinyourlifetimehoney: Yes, that is correct. LoL. Thanks.

To maddie: :D

To Caroline: Thank you! That is an amazing compliment. It means a lot.


	103. Chapter 103

Aria and Ezra hopped back into the car after stopping to eat lunch at a scenic park not too out off the beaten path of the route between Rosewood to New York City. Prior to that, they had spent some time walking around at a sculpture garden located about an hour outside Rosewood, an excursion to make the fairly short and direct drive feel like more of a road trip. In addition to that, they'd already stopped multiple times for bathroom breaks. It was annoying, yes, but Ezra tried not to let himself get annoyed by stuff like that. Anything to do with the pregnancy, he wanted to help with. He was understanding of her mood swings to a fault, being patient without being patronizing, and making a conscious effort to not let his temper flare up when hers did, as a way of making it up to her for being the cause.

Aria played with the radio dial, trying to find something decent to listen to. She flipped and flipped, giving each station no more than 2 seconds to make its case before moving on. _Nothing. Nothing. Bad song. Annoying ad. Nothing. Horns. Nothing._ She stopped, then backtracked to the station playing the song with the horns, recognizing them immediately. "Omigod, I can't believe it!" she exclaimed.

"What," he glanced over at her wondering what caused the outburst.

"I can't believe they're playing this song!"

"What is it?"

"Little Talks, Of Monsters and Men. I've played their album around you," Aria told him, "not lately though."

"It sounds sort of familiar," he said, listening to the male vocalist alternate lines with the female.

"I _love_ this song," she said enthusiastically. "I saw them at the Iceland Airwaves Festival, did I tell you that? I was so high though, I can barely remember."

Ezra laughed, sorry he'd missed it.

"Yeah, it's a real shame actually, cuz there were a lot of great bands there. jj, The Antlers, um," she counted on her fingers, listing bands from memory, not memory of the actual festival, which was fuzzy at best, but the lineup she had planned to see, "Slagsmålsklubben.."

Ezra turned to look at her. "Gesundheit?"

She cracked up, "Yeah, it's a mouthful right," and started rubbing his shoulder. Aria was able to say the name of the band flawlessly because she'd repeated it a dozen times after her friend, with whom she attended said festival and from whom she had obtained said drugs. "Uhh, Neon Indian.. _Robyn_ was there," she added with a tone of 'how could I forget.' Ezra displayed no reaction to mention of the name of the biggest act there, so she asked, "Do you know _any_ of these?"

"Mm-mm," he admitted with a cheek squinch and minor head shake.

"Bombay Bicycle Club," she remembered as her fingers worked at a knot at the base of his neck.

"Oh cool." He actually knew that band.

Aria put her head back and dropped her hand to her lap. She couldn't remember any others, and he wouldn't recognize them anyway. "Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I wish we could have gone this year. The lineup was even better. _Björk_ was there." Enough said, in her opinion. No need to list any others.

Ezra nodded, appreciative of Björk's musical talents, but not pretending to ever listen to her music without Aria's provocation.

Neither spoke while the rest of the song played, Aria singing along silently with a smile on her face. "This just made me so happy," she declared towards the end. "I was about to say how the radio sucks, but this just renewed my faith. Can you think of a single other Icelandic band who gets radio play here?"

"I cannot." He could barely think of a single Icelandic band period. Three, if he were allowed to count Jónsi as separate from Sigur Rós.

_Because there are none._ "If they ever tour the States, we _have_ to go," Aria asserted, hoping it might make up for the first time, wishing she hadn't missed out.

"Sure," he said, eyes on the signs by the side of the road, making sure he didn't miss his turn.

"Promise?"

Giving her his full attention for a brief second, he said, "I promise." Ezra kept his promises.

For a moment, Aria was content, pleased the little indie band she loved so much was headed for success.

The next song this station began to play was not something she cared to listen to and her renewed faith in radio didn't last long at all. Seconds later she was fiddling with her iPod, searching for the playlist she had created for the road trip, full of songs by Train, Anberlin and Mutemath, set to shuffle. Her musical tastes really did run the gamut.

"I want pancakes," she said, seemingly out of nowhere. The thought process went like this: [Song lyric] _It's the house telling you to close your eyes. House. House of Pancakes. International House of Pancakes which I want to eat. I forgot how great this song is... The radio sucks. Pancakes!_

"We _just_ ate." He had made them a picnic, complete with delicious sandwiches on bakery bread, iced tea, and even watermelon slices. It was like the most romantic thing ever, in Aria's eyes at least. The stares and throat clearings of passing little old ladies was the only thing that kept them from going all the way right there on the old quilt serving as the picnic blanket.

"Your point?" She waited for a response, trying to see how quickly he'd offer to track some down for her. It didn't happen. He seemed too focused on watching the street signs so they found their way back to the main highway. "I don't mean right this second. Sometime this weekend though."

Last time she had the hankering for pancakes, Ezra had to remind her of her new aversion to bacon, which pancake houses generally reeked of, and what most people considered a good thing. Maybe he'd get room service tomorrow morning, that would solve the problem.

"..I also want to make sure we find a Pinkberry, I've heard good things." Mostly from celebrity gossip rags.

"Okay," he agreed. "Add Pinkberry to the list of obligatory New York City tourist foods - pizza, cheesecake, bagels." The cheesecake was his idea, because he knew she liked it and that there was no better place to get it than the Big Apple.

"Bagels, really?" They had bagels all the time at home. It seemed like a waste of a meal to get the same thing they had every weekend when they could be trying something new.

"They're better here, trust me. It's the water, or something." There was no point trying to explain, she would just have to see for herself.

Aria shrugged, _whatever. _"I also want to go to Shake Shack. It was on a list for the best burgers around the city and I _need_ to try them." Her mouth had started watering the instant she clicked on the website and saw a picture of the tender and juicy cheeseburgers, grilled to perfection.

Ezra nodded once, mentally adding it to the list.

"And there's this gelato place on the Lower East Side which has chili chocolate milk shakes." The combination of spicy and chocolate _had_ to be good. "We went there once during a field trip and I couldn't choose between that and the espresso flavor and I went with the espresso and regretted it ever since. I have literally been thinking about this milk shake every second since Monday night." Slight exaggeration. Maybe every _other_ second. "We have to go there, okay?"

"Yeah," he agreed. Though he wasn't sure when they'd be able to fit it all in on top of the other activities they had planned, he was certainly willing to try.

They sat in silence for a little while, listening to the music. Aria traced the outlines of the cheetah spots on her turquoise skirt. Then she adjusted the yellow leather belt above her belly, smoothing the knit fabric of the dark pink peplum halter top she wore. The summer road trip called for a multitude of intensely bright colors to be distributed across her person, naturally. "I'm nervous about meeting your mom," Aria eventually said. All week she'd been playing it cool in his presence, while deep down a nervous wreck. She hoped she would make a good impression on the woman who was likely to become a big part of her and her daughter's life.

"Don't be nervous," Ezra said. "She won't bite." He was the only one with any reason to be nervous.

"How much did you tell her about me?" Aria asked.

"Enough," he said.

"What does _that _mean?" Suddenly Aria wished she had asked this question a lot sooner.

"She knows your name is Aria and that I love you."

"That's it? You haven't told her about the baby? Or anything?" How had this not come up? Somehow Aria hadn't given it any thought until now. Ezra rarely brought up his family and she wasn't the type to pry, but she'd assumed, incorrectly apparently, that Ezra had filled them in.

"It wasn't something I felt like telling her over the phone," he said. "'Hey mom, I'm having an affair with one of my students, and by the way, she's pregnant!'" It would have gone over about as well as 'Hey mom, I'm having an affair with my teacher, and by the way, I'm pregnant,' he thought, then retracted the thought. No matter what, telling her parents would always be the worse of the two scenarios.

Aria breathed loudly through her nose at him, nearly at a loss for words. "How could you not tell her! Or at least warn me she didn't know! Were you ever gonna say anything?"

"I was," Ezra stated, though he suspected he'd have put it off until the last possible minute had Aria not just brought it up.

She was not convinced. "That is like... How do you just not tell your mom you're having a baby?"

She didn't see the hypocrisy of that question until Ezra pointed out, "You didn't tell your parents for a long time."

"For good reason! Are you saying you have a good reason for not telling her?" A lousy thought occurred to Aria. "Is she gonna hate me, or something?" She was now twice as nervous as she had been before.

"I promise she won't hate you," Ezra assured her. "No one could ever hate you. I just, I haven't seen her in a few months and I wasn't ready to share this news with her right away. At the beginning... I wasn't sure what was gonna happen. I..." He searched for the right words.

"What do you mean?" she asked, staring at the side of his face which refused to turn in her direction as he explained his feelings.

"Look, I was thrilled by the idea of having a baby with you. From the first second it became a possibility, it felt like all the pieces were falling into place and everything made sense." Ezra told the absolute truth. "But at the same time, it was scary as hell - the logistics of it all. I didn't know what was gonna happen. If your parents found out and reacted differently. If they found out we'd been together while I was your teacher, they could have tried to have me thrown in jail." He had never shared this fear with her. Aria had always been afraid of Ella and Byron trying to cut her off from Ezra, by grounding her, and watching her 24/7, but Ezra had thought by attempting to put him behind bars. Being arrested for having sexual relations with a student would likely cost him his job, leaving him with no prospects of getting another in the field of teaching, which meant he wouldn't be able to support the child, which meant he'd lose the custody battle, if it came to that. Ezra knew Aria wouldn't turn against him, but also knew her parents might not give her much choice, and she would ultimately choose the best situation for the baby even if it meant being apart. The idea sickened him, that he would be responsible for ruining Aria's life and not have the chance to help fix it, that their child would have to grow up with a deadbeat dad, knowing his mistakes prevented them from being the happy family he so wished they would become. The thing that sickened him the most was the idea that their child would eventually grow up and realize his or her existence was the catalyst for everything falling apart. Ezra wouldn't have been able to live with himself. He needed this baby to grow up knowing she was the brightest spot in his life.

"You thought they'd've tried to have you arrested? They wouldn't have, they're not-"

"What's the first thing your father did when he found out about the baby? He went to the cops," he reminded her.

Aria frowned. While that was true, she had never expected her father to react that way. She always knew she was putting Ezra's job at risk by being with him while he was her teacher, but always thought that if her parents found out, they wouldn't flip out and sic the cops on him, they would listen and eventually come to realize she and Ezra belonged together, though she knew it would take time and a lot of convincing. "You never told me you felt that way," Aria said, in shock to be hearing this for the first time. "I never wanted to hurt you," she added quietly, still thinking back to their relationship last year.

Ezra heard her mumble something, but didn't hear what, so he responded to the part he did hear. "I didn't want to add my worries to yours. Dealing with all this must have been so hard for you, but you usually seemed so upbeat, and you had a plan. So I trusted you, and that part of myself that was telling me this was right."

"I'm glad you did," Aria said, willing to let this go because it was all in the past now, no longer a possibility. "But I don't understand why you didn't tell your mom."

"It was one thing to tell her I met this amazing girl," he began, "but it would have been another to describe the whole situation. I didn't want her to be disappointed in me... to look at this from the outside and judge it."

It still wasn't what Aria wanted to hear. "Why would she be disappointed in you?"

Ezra took a breath. "Please don't take this the wrong way. I know you know by now I wouldn't take anything back, not a single thing. But as a teacher, in my first teaching job, to get involved with a student... is wrong. It's ethically wrong whether we can justify it to ourselves or not."

"Ezra..."

"I'm not saying _we_ are wrong." Ezra made sure to look at her as he said this. "Not even a little bit. But if I went home and told my mom I met this great girl... and she's in my class, what would she have said?" He knew exactly what she would have said. "She would have tried to talk me out of it. She would have told me to come to my senses."

"Are you sure she wouldn't have told you to follow your heart?"

_Always the optimist. _"Probably not..." Ezra said dimly. "She's a schoolteacher..."

"Oh," Aria huffed and folded her arms, thunking against the back of her chair. "So basically your mom is gonna judge us and hate me for ruining your career."

"No! She will not," he swore. "Those are all my own stupid reasons for not telling her. But now... now there's nothing she could possibly say. No reason she could possibly be upset." Except at him for lying for so long. "She will love you. I promise."

A few long seconds passed while Aria thought this over. Ezra looked over at her to make sure she believed him. Finally, she said, "I never knew you felt those things. Why don't you tell me what you're thinking?"

"Because sometimes..." Ezra began tentatively, "when I say things... you take it the wrong way and I wish I never said anything."

Aria didn't speak.

"And now would be one of those times..." he said regretfully, thinking opening up like this may have been a bad idea.

"You don't ever have to feel like you can't tell me things," Aria said quickly. "I know I jump to the wrong conclusions sometimes. I don't mean to... I'll try not to anymore. Please, just always tell me what you're thinking, even if you think it will upset me. We have to be able to tell each other everything." She didn't like knowing he had kept his feelings from her for all that time. Every time she had opened up, he held back. No more.

"There is nothing I am keeping from you." _Nothing that would make you angry._

Aria wished she were able to say the same. She thought of the various lies she had been maintaining the past year. There was only one secret she was keeping from Ezra and it was for his own good. Messages from A had tapered off the past few months and been becoming more erratic. At this point, A was a nuisance more than anything, but she thought of the accident backstage of the talent show, and what A had done to her friends in the past, and knew A was capable of anything. Talking about it would not make it go away. Ignoring it seemed to be working for now.

Again Ezra momentarily took his eyes off the road to check if she believed him. She did, but he couldn't tell by looking at the side of her face for less than half of a second. "If you were so scared of what might happen, why were you ready to tell them everything that day? You almost ruined the whole plan," Aria said. Before she'd gotten a chance to tell Ella they'd only been together for 2 months, Ezra nearly blew it.

"You never told me the plan!" Not until after the ambush. When Aria did actually lay it out for him 2 nights later, Ezra had his reservations. Sitting up in bed together, he said, _"I don't see how she'll be okay with it,"_ meaning Ella. Even back then, they knew Ella was the one they needed to win over.  
_"She won't _be_ okay with it," _Aria explained,_ "but she'll get okay with it. They want me to be happy and you make me happy and they'll have seen that for months before we tell them." _If she was able to pull it off.  
_"But they will definitely think I took advantage of you, that I didn't waste any time going from being your teacher to jumping into bed with you."_ Ezra wasn't thrilled when he realized Ella and Byron would think they were together less than a month before she got pregnant.  
_"Do you have any better ideas?"_  
Ezra did not. Her plan was much better than any alternative he could come up with, and it was too late to take it back anyway. "I thought we were there to be honest."

"There's only so much honesty she could have handled. I'm sure we did the right thing." She knew in her bones it was the right thing to lie because all of Ezra's worst fears and her own _could_ have come true if they had come clean about everything from the get-go. Aria didn't want to imagine what would have happened had they told the whole truth that day.

* * *

Links to Aria and Ezra's outfits from Blood Is The New Black in my profile.

Link to the song Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men also in my profile.

I'd like to recommend again the story Playground Love by LaTerreAuxEtoiles. It is a Wrencer fic, but it's really well-written and funny and simply needs more readers and reviewers. Check it out!


	104. Chapter 104

(Parts of) this scene were inspired by HaNpllfan. You can thank her if you like it, blame me if you don't.

* * *

(Part 1 of 3)

Ezra pulled the room key from his back pocket and slid it into the slot above the door handle of room 1704. It made a little mechanical noise as the light turned green and Ezra was able to enter the room. He carried a small white shopping bag and a cup of coffee in his left hand from the Dean & Deluca downstairs. In addition to the coffee, he'd purchased a bottle of water, an apple and a brownie and was about to tell Aria what the total of this purchase cost, a positively absurd amount, when he saw her by the window. The short satin crimson-colored dress she wore sparkled in the sunlight which filled the whole room. The zipper was undone, exposing a good portion of her back. As he stepped/strode further into the room, the corner of the king-sized bed no longer blocked the view of her legs and he stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted the black patent leather jewel-encrusted 4-inch heels on her feet. Most guys are not this lucky, he thought.

"Oh good, you're back," Aria said, looking at him over her shoulder. "Could you zip this for me? I can't get it." After she had given up with the zipper, she had been enjoying the view of the city since it was quite a different view than in Rosewood, and Reykjavik had nothing on NYC in terms of sheer size and massive volume. She'd been to this city a handful of times before and could never get over the constant activity, of cars and people on the street; they never stopped _moving._ Rosewood was much more her speed, though the occasional visit to the big city was a welcomed change.

Ezra set the coffee cup and paper bag down on the small round table to his left and met her at the window. He refrained from wrapping his arms around her, or letting his hands wander to all the places they'd like to go, and instead dutifully tugged on the little red zipper pull. When it didn't move, he used both hands to pull the fabric on either side closer and immediately realized the problem. "I don't think it's gonna zip," he told her gently.

"Are you sure?" Aria twisted her head, trying to see. "Try it again."

He tugged on the dress again and said, "The edges don't meet. There's no way I could zip this up for you, and even if I could, you'd be very uncomfortable." _And she'd be very squooshed._

Aria exhaled sharply through her nose and frowned, looking down at her softly rounded belly. "I guess sucking it in wouldn't help any?"

Ezra didn't think a joke would be received well, if he could have thought of one in the first place, so he simply said, "No, I don't think so."

Aria growled low in the back of her throat, resigned.

The familiarity of the situation struck him. They once stood before a window like this, overlooking a city, a different city, lit up by automobile headlights, traffic signals and neon shop signs instead of the bright sun. He had come up behind her, wordlessly wrapped an arm around her thin waist and, breathing in her ear, slowly drew the zipper of this same dress down her back. She twisted around and kissed him, already out of breath. He didn't explain his reasons for changing his mind, but did ask, "_Are you sure about this?_" as things heated up. She had never been so sure of anything in her life, and told him as much. "_You don't want to get me drunk first so you can have your way with me again?" _he quipped, breaking the tension hanging in the air. Her face lit up and they laughed and kissed and laughed some more, rolling around on the bed, actually having fun, peeling off layers without any rush, relishing the fact they were away from it all for one stolen night, able to be themselves, together. He told her he loved her at least a dozen times that night. "Isn't this the dress you wore on our first date?" he asked. The follow-up sentence was going to be "Why did you think it would fit?" but he wisely didn't go there, remembering a certain piece of advice he'd gotten once.

She filled in the blanks though. "I thought it had more give," Aria said, turning around and leaning against the window. She flinched when her bare skin first touched the cold glass, then relaxed against it. She had assumed the dress would fit without trying it on to confirm, evidently underestimating the size of her growing middle. "Now what am I gonna wear?"

"What else did you bring?" Ezra asked on his way to the closet. He pushed aside the white accordion door and pulled out a wooden hanger holding a sundress with an all-over floral print of pink and yellow roses on a dark background. The top portion was fairly fitted and somewhat skimpy and flared out into an A-line skirt. The snap placket down the front began at the deep-V neckline and ended at the hem which would fall about mid-thigh. "What about this?"

"No, I'm wearing that tomorrow. It's not too slutty a dress to meet your mother in, is it?" Aria asked as she walked around the bed and took a seat. "With the spaghetti straps and the cutout in the back… I'll wear a sweater over it at the restaurant, but it's gonna be hot as hell tomorrow, I don't wanna be sweating my ass off and show up with pit stains or something equally embarrassing, I wanna make a good first impression."

It was honestly cute that she was nervous about meeting his mother, but also ridiculous. Ezra knew she had nothing to worry about. "You could wear a paper sack and she wouldn't care. Neither would I. You'd still be the hottest thing in the room wherever we go," which was always the case.

"I'm not trying to look hot, I'm trying to look nice. And skinny." Aria went through every outfit in her closet yesterday trying to find the perfect thing to wear. She chose this one because it was comfortable and lightweight, a requirement since the forecast put NYC in the mid-nineties on Saturday, and wouldn't make her look like she was trying too hard. Now she was glad she did because it also hid the baby bump pretty well, another requirement since Ezra hadn't told his mom a damn thing about her impending grandmother status. Aria didn't want this woman's first words to be, 'Oh my god, you're pregnant.' Let her believe Ezra's girlfriend was a little chubby, for a while at least.

"You are skinny," he said.

Aria rubbed her palm around in circles over her belly and said, "That's debatable."

Ezra knew better than to enter any debate on the subject. "So paper sack it is then?"

"I could rock a paper sack," she said with confidence. "If I could add some sequins," she swept her fingers across the bust line, "and some ribbons," she grazed her shoulder, "and some fringe at the bottom," she pointed.

He laughed as he turned back to the closet. "What about this one?" he asked pulling out a navy blue mini-dress with a squarish neckline, and realized immediately it wouldn't fit either. Ezra didn't ask why she brought it, though he was wondering.

It was the alternate for the red one. "I'll try it, but I don't think that one's gonna fit either. I basically had to pour myself into it last time I wore it, and it zips on the side. It's got some stretch though so." _It's worth a shot._ She held out her hand and he gave her the dress, which she laid down on the bed beside her and stood up. Aria let the red dress slide to her feet, revealing a black strapless bra and what might be a black lace thong, yes, yes, definitely a thong, Ezra confirmed when she twisted around to pick up the blue garment. Aria stepped out of the first dress, stooped to pick it up, and cast it at Ezra as she rose, who caught it without taking his eyes off her. His gaze slid lustfully upwards starting at the sky-high pair of pumps, up her defined calves to her smooth supple thighs, up past the band of lace and slightly protruding stomach to the generous cleavage spilling out the molded cups and lingered there while she stepped into the second dress.

Aria pulled it up, feeling it was already a tight fit, knowing it had been wishful thinking to have ever believed otherwise, slipped her arms in and turned her back to Ezra. She didn't need help zipping it and knew it wouldn't zip anyway, but decided to throw him a bone. Figuratively. He stepped right up to her and found the zipper pull just above her hip then slipped a hand inside instead and skimmed the soft taut skin across her belly and breathed in her ear. He was thinking about how insanely easy it would be to push her down on the bed; she weighed practically nothing.

She pretended to ignore the hardness pressing against her lower back. She could have made a 'is that a [_insert hard object here_] in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?' joke, but it was so _old,_ probably listed under the dictionary definition of 'cliche,' and rarely as funny as the person saying it thought it was.

Was it worth it messing up her hair and missing their reservation? Shockingly, Aria decided, no. "See, it doesn't zip. I've got nothing to wear," she said turning 180 degrees so his hand was hanging in mid-air behind her back, cold from the sudden loss of contact, and plopped down on the bed, then fell back to look at the ceiling. She wished she had brought the 'wow' dress; the empire waist would have suited her needs perfectly.

Ezra got the message loud and clear. He stepped away, running a hand jaggedly through his hair and taking a long breath. "What else did you bring?" he asked and crouched down to unzip the black and white striped suitcase propped against the wall beside the closet. The zipper snagged on something so he yanked a little harder to free it and the suitcase toppled forward. The curved wooden handle of what looked like an umbrella poked out. He grabbed hold and couldn't believe what he was seeing. Were they attending a Victorian Era tea party he was unaware of? "You brought a parasol?" he asked in a flat incredulous tone. If he'd had to guess what items he might find in there, 'parasol' would not have graced that list. Sure, she was into funky accessories, pushing the boundaries of fashion with earrings seemingly made from the skinned hides of dead animals, and giant metal replicas of beetles and tarantulas chained to her neck and pinned to her chest, he even swore one time her handbag was covered in genuine shark teeth, but a parasol? This had got to have broken some kind of 'crazy' record.

"It's vintage," she offered as her entire explanation.

* * *

In my profile are links to: Aria's red dress and high heels from 1.15 If At First You Don't Succeed, Lie, Lie Again, Aria's blue dress from 2.06 Never Letting Go, a picture of the hotel room, Aria's silky pajamas, her luggage, the thong, and the dress she plans to wear tomorrow.

Thank you maddie, and everyone else who reads and reviews! And as you see, when you tell me stuff you'd like to see happen, I might just write it in! This chapter started as a way to have Aria struggle fitting into her clothes, HaNpllfan's suggestion, and then morphed greatly. So keep it in mind. :)


	105. Chapter 105

(Part 2 of 3)

"It's vintage," she offered as her entire explanation.

Ezra did not have a response. The parasol was set aside and Ezra pulled at some pewter-tone silky fabric which revealed itself to be a set of short cami pajamas. He bet he'd love the way they'd swing, hanging off her curves, and the way they'd feel as he ripped them off her.

Next he saw a zebra print tankini she'd brought, the proper attire for a dip in the hotel pool. Last time, they hadn't been so prudent. After that impromptu dip, while their underwear dried on the radiator under the window, they took to the bathtub, large enough to fit them both comfortably, unlike the tiny tub in this hotel room, hardly big enough for one person. They wouldn't be taking any joint baths here, or indulging in any champagne, not for a while at least.

Continuing to inspect the remaining items in her suitcase, he asked, "What, no books?" remembering how many she'd brought along on their last vacation. When he turned around, the blue dress was strewn over the white pillow sham on the bed and Aria was leaning back on her palms, wearing only her underwear again, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed.

She wasn't paying much attention to him and said, "Nah, not this time. I thought if I got bored, you could entertain me." About one second later she said, "With your dick."

"_That_ could be arranged," he responded without skipping a beat.

Her eyes went wide when she saw him tramping toward her with obvious intentions. "I didn't mean to say that out loud!" she cried, jumping up. "We don't have time."

Ezra stopped and set his jaw, glowering at her. "Entertain you? Am I here simply for your amusement? Are you expecting a puppet show?"

"Now I am!" she exclaimed, stifling a laugh. He laughed too. Then with a more serious tone, she stated, "You know I'm only using you for your body."

"I could say the same about you."

_Please. _Aria ignored the comment. "Your hot. Rock. Hard. Body," she continued, placing her hands on his toned chest. Ezra had been working out more this summer, hitting the gym with Caleb sometimes, and making biking less an activity of leisure, more a fitness routine. He had to stay in shape to keep up with their frequent romps, in, and out of, the sack.

Ezra grazed a hand down her back and snapped the elastic of the thong like a rubberband against her ass. Aria remembered why they couldn't do this right now and backed away saying, "No!" adding, "I'm sorry." He shook his head at her. And at her mind games. "Later," she told him. "We'll both be all revved up from the anticipation. It'll be great," she promised distractedly. "So what am I gonna wear? This is a problem."

Frustrated, he declared, "Anything! Wear your pajamas! This is New York City. You could walk down the street wearing a big yellow raincoat and you'd hardly get a second look." He was counting on not getting a second look when they stepped out arm-in-arm and she twirled a frilly white parasol over their heads, or at least planning on ignoring it.

"I'm serious! I have nothing. Not even a 'big yellow raincoat.'" Was that really the most absurd thing he could have come up with? Aria wondered. How about a Big Bird costume? Or a pantsuit made of astroturf? _Lame_, she thought at him.

"What's this then?" Ezra said, pulling out a pair of off-white trouser shorts and a purple chiffon top. The very same top Aria had told Hanna not to buy, but the blonde girl with the listening problem went ahead and bought anyway the very day after she was instructed not to. Hanna had stashed it in her closet for about a month until Aria's little secret was out. Then one afternoon she put it in a plain white shirt box with tissue paper and pink ribbon, handed it to Aria as she slid into the car, and said, "_You're welcome_." Aria was momentarily furious, but had no legitimate reason to be, and the top was just as cute as Hanna had said, so she said, "_Thank you_," and graciously accepted her gift.

"That's for _Sunday_," Aria groused, frustrated he couldn't have guessed something so obvious. It was the perfect outfit for walking around the city, hitting all the cute boutiques and vintage shops downtown, and spending some time at the MoMA before heading home. To add to the itinerary, Ezra also wanted to take her to a little used bookstore, a hidden treasure he had discovered once in the East Village.

"What's wrong with what you were wearing earlier?" Does anyone ever really _need _to wear 2 different outfits in one day?

Another stupid question. "I'm not wearing a turquoise cheetah skirt to the theatre. I have _some_ class."

He didn't see anything wrong with it. She'd worn stranger things to classier places. "You know no one dresses for the theatre anymore, right? Most people show up in jeans I bet." Ezra had gotten them tickets to Wicked on Broadway; it was not a random pick. A few hours before Aria had called him that dreadful night in hysterics, grief-stricken over the awful possibility they might lose the baby, they had watched the Wizard of Oz on TV at his place. When she had said, "Please just distract me, sing me a song," curled up in bed, pretending he was there holding her, he sang the first thing that came to mind - "_We're off to see the Wizard_." He didn't know all the words though and actually got her to laugh as she tried to teach him. The classic film held a special place in each of their hearts as a result, as did this play by association.

"And _we_ are _not_ those people..." Aria squinted at him and asked, "What are _you_ planning to wear?"

"Uh.. this?" Ezra said, looking down at the dark blue collared shirt and tan khakis he wore, sensing he would not be wearing these items to the show tonight afterall. What, were the white buttons too risky a fashion move? he thought at her sarcastically.

"You would've worn khakis if I'd worn that red dress?" _That hot red ass-hugging dress I won't fit into again for a year._

"Probably."

"Oh no." She was not having it. "You can't wear something so casual to a Broadway show. Didn't you bring a suit?"

"_But if I wear the suit tonight, what will I wear tomorrow to meet my mom?_" he mocked her.

"Be serious! We're wasting time here. Wear the suit tonight and the grey pinstripes tomorrow," Aria said like it was the easiest decision anyone had ever made. "The important thing is what am _I_ going to wear?"

_Well you sure like wearing virtually nothing at all... and taunting the people around you_, he thought, with his eyes residing on the strapless bra again. "You brought nothing else?"

"That's everything," she said with a minor hand gesture in the general direction of the closet. Her chest bounced slightly and Ezra blinked, forcing his stare back up at her face.

"So I'll buy you a new dress," he said.

"You don't have to."

"I want to. It's my fault you can't fit into your old ones."

"Maybe technically..." Aria agreed and laughed.

Ezra grinned. "Not technically. Definitely," he said stepping forward to place a hand on her belly, caressing it gently.

She spun on her heel and said, "If you wanna buy me a dress, I won't put up a fight," as she picked up the blue dress and headed toward the closet. "But we're not near any of the good shops," Aria continued, replacing it on the hanger.

"We're not near any clothing stores? I find that hard to believe."

"Actually," she remembered as she took up the red dress Ezra had carelessly dropped to the floor earlier, "there's a Forever 21 on the corner, I saw it before.. They have cute cocktail dresses." Aria hung that one in the closet as well, and Ezra got an eyeful of her firm round behind literally begging to be squeezed.

"Then problem solved," he forced himself to say in response.

Aria leaned against the wall with her hands behind her lower back hoping the trendy clothing retailer would have something that wouldn't clash with her shoes. Ezra stood halfway across the room and raked his eyes up her body again. She must have put the thought out into the universe, or else he was just trying to distract himself, because then he said, "Not that I'm complaining, but, might you want to rethink those heels? You don't want to trip."

She gave him a look. "I think I can handle a pair of heels. I've only been wearing them since I was, like, 12. Do I ever trip?"

"No, it's just that one of the books said it wasn't the best idea. Even if we're not doing a lot of walking.."

"It said don't wear them if it's uncomfortable, and it's not uncomfortable." The back pain was no worse in heels than in flats. "It's not every day I have an excuse to rock these Badgely Mischkas," as if the name meant anything to him. Aria lifted her foot a few inches to admire the work of art. "They call my name every time I open my closet." She didn't give him a chance to turn it into an argument, not that he was going to; he was too busy admiring her leather-clad feet as well. Actually more like the way her legs looked looked in them. At the barbecue earlier in the summer, he had walked in on Hanna in the kitchen telling Aria about a pair of 'fuck me' heels. He'd never heard the term before, and hadn't really gotten it, until now that is. _'Fuck me' heels, _he thought. That they were... What a useful and accurate term, he contemplated. "What about the reservation?" she asked. "We'll definitely miss it if we go shopping now."

One of the jewels caught the light. Ezra had to replay her last words in his brain. "..I'll push it back 'til after the show. We can grab some street food beforehand to hold us over."

Aria gawked at him with faux astonishment. "You would subject your tiny, undeveloped, unborn daughter," she said as she stepped closer to him, "this tiny little peanut, right in here," she pointed, "to dirty New York City street food?" The baby was actually quite a bit larger than a peanut, now closer to the size of a sweet potato, but the nickname had stuck.

Ezra didn't have to force himself to look at her face while he animatedly explained, "Hardy told me about this place, it's not that far from here," he pointed toward the window, then the wall with the TV, a bit disoriented as far as where this street cart was actually located, "he said the chicken and rice is amazing when you eat it with the white sauce. He says it's so good, it's like crack." The first time Hardy discovered this place, he called Ezra and raved about it on and off for over an hour. Ezra had questioned whether he had actually done some crack.

"And now you want to feed our baby crack! Did you learn nothing from those parenting books!"

"I learned plenty. And if that repulsive candy you eat by the fistful isn't harming our child, I doubt a little white sauce will hurt her at all."

"It's better than crack you say?" Aria changed her tune, "We may want to try it..."

He knew she would. "Oh, we should decide now if we want to crash at Hardy's tomorrow, or if you'd rather get this room for a second night."

Aria thought about it for about a second then said, "Let's stay at his place." Hardy's place would be free and she wanted to see it anyway. She didn't know how much Ezra had paid for this room. He had said he got a good last minute deal online on Monday when they'd decided to make the trip, but she guessed it cost more than he let on. Having a king-sized bed on one of the highest floors in the newly renovated vintage glam hotel was unnecessary. She'd have been just as happy with a full bed on a low floor, or sleeping on a cot at a crappier hotel, as long as she was able to curl up against him on it. The Wicked tickets were probably also a fortune.

Ezra wondered what had led her to this conclusion, thinking she would have for sure opted for the hotel room. She'd probably be sleeping on the sofa and he'd probably get the special guest accommodations of sleeping on the floor. It'd be so much less comfortable than a giant soft pillow-top mattress, and definitely less private. If they only had access to this large lofty bed for one night, he was going to make the most of it. "I'm supposed to tell you what I'm thinking, right?"

* * *

Notinyourlifetimehoney - You always guess it! Yep shopping! Lol.

anonymous - Thank you very much. :)

Maddie - Thank you! I'll tell you I seriously considered writing in an earthquake because there really was an earthquake in NY in August 2011, actually the whole east coast, but I couldn't think of anything else to do with it because it didn't really fit into the story as a whole. I'm totally open to suggestions, but I'm not sure I can make it work. Thank you for the ideas. The NY chapters are all basically done, but if you've got any thoughts for future chapters, small things I could work in without changing the overall plot, I'm all ears.

Basically I'm looking for details to add to unfinished/unwritten chapters, but since you guys don't know what's coming, that's basically an impossible request lol. Just keep doing what you're doing. I find inspiration in your comments where you'd least expect.


	106. Chapter 106

Feel free to skip this chapter if you're not fond of the sex stuff. You won't miss anything story-wise. ...Well, at least read to the paragraph which mentions Spencer, cuz I think it's funny, but you don't have to lol. We meet his mom in the next chapter, which I have posted simultaneously since I made you wait long enough.

* * *

(Part 3 of 3)

"I'm supposed to tell you what I'm thinking, right?"

Aria nodded, slightly concerned. They'd just agreed to that earlier today. What could be wrong now? She thought maybe the invitation to stay at Hardy's was a formality she was supposed to turn down, but realized she was mistaken as soon as she saw the look come over his face.

"I'm thinking that you can't just strut around here like that," he gestured at her near naked body standing about 3 feet in front of him. "With those... curves!" his hands did the hourglass thing, "in all the right places. And not expect me to wanna fuck you senseless!"

"Fuck, Ezra!" Aria shouted and shoved him against the wall. "You know I can't handle it when you say shit like that to me!" He did know. She was usually the one to use such language and it seemed like she was rubbing off on him. "I just did my hair!" she yelled and furiously started yanking open his shirt, button by button.

"I won't mess it up," he said with this _smirk_, this smug superior smirk, like he could get whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. It infuriated her. Ezra pressed the heel of one of the boatshoes he was wearing against the wall and slipped his foot out, then the other.

Aria yanked the short-sleeved shirt down his shoulders and flung it at the window, "Yeah right! Last time you said that I had to wear one of Spencer's hats to school!" then went to work on his pants.

Ezra started laughing because he remembered exactly what she was talking about. She had stopped by his place early one morning for some action before school. Aria made him promise not to touch her hair, but he did and messed it up pretty good. She had no time to stop and fix it and he refused to write her a late pass because it broke their 'no special treatment' rule. She tried to fix it on the way in the rear view mirror, but without a brush, her fingers couldn't tame the frizzy strands already coated in hair spray. Aria had pulled in next to Spencer, who was running late probably for the first time in her life, made up a story about snagging her hair in a tree branch and asked for help. Luckily, Spencer bought her story and didn't guess it was sex hair. Apparently, the only thing Spencer could offer her was a hat from the trunk of her car, and convinced her that it looked good and that no one would look twice considering some of the costumes she wore to school sometimes. Wrong. She showed up to class wearing a puffy patchwork newsboy cap like she just walked off the set of Soul Train. Aria glared at him the entire period, breaking their no eye contact rule, deliberately this time.

His hand pulled her in by under her arm and fingers crept further behind her back in search of the little hooks, but she jerked away and smacked his hand, which didn't hurt, though she had intended for it to. "No! You don't get everything you want," she yelled, shoving him again and dropped down to wrench his pants down his legs. He stepped out of them and his socks at the same time. Starting at her waist, Ezra pushed her panties down her hips with one sweeping motion, crouching simultaneously. His forearms on her lower back pulled her in close while he fervidly kissed, licked, and sucked on her belly button. Aria gripped his shoulders for balance and stepped out of one shoe to liberate herself from the lacy undergarment then let that foot fall to the ground preparing to do the same with the other, but Ezra's warning, "_Don't_ you _dare_ take those off" made her reconsider. Aria glared at him, knowing he won this one because she found it unbelievably hot when he ordered her around like that. She slipped her foot back into the heel, raising the right side of her body up about 4 inches and barely managed to kick the panties away when he pushed her backwards onto the bed, linebacker style.

"You like these shoes?" Aria asked teasing his crotch with a toe while he lifted her other leg to his chest, running his hand up the underside slowly with a piercing gaze. She couldn't let him get away with this stunt, the way he was lording this control over her, so told him, "Tomorrow, I'm gonna need help with the sunblock and you're not- _Fuck!" _she hissed when he plunged into her forcibly. Both ankles were being held up on his shoulders, heels pointed up at the ceiling. His feet were still on the ground, upper thighs on the edge of the bed where they connected. "_Jesus_. _Fucking_. _Christ_. _Ezra_," she said each time he lurched at her. Aria almost called him out on his impatience, but saw the extreme hypocrisy in doing so. Just this past Monday, she went a little wild waiting for him to finish futzing around on his laptop, trying to get his attention with every trick in the book. Nothing worked. But when he finally did shut the computer, she was ready to pounce and showed him a real good time, keeping him up far past his bedtime. "You were listening," she stated, pleased, if a little taken by surprise, that he was finally taking her pointers on being more aggressive.

She didn't always talk and he had once asked her if it meant she wasn't enjoying it as much. Aria had said no, it was more like it meant she was enjoying it so much she was unable to access that part of her brain which formed speech. So his job now was to get her to that place. Ezra chose not to respond verbally. The maddening smirk never left his face.

Aria propped herself up on her elbows and dug her hands under her back to increase the elevation and improve the angle. "Mmph. Mm," were the noises being created at the back of her throat as she immediately felt the difference.

"You like that?" he asked with a licentious stare as his hands traveled down her legs, pulling her closer to pound her again and again.

She met his stare, nodding, and said, "_Harder,"_ pulling one foot down and standing it on his chest so she wouldn't be the only one getting the benefit of seeing those heels. She separated her thighs and tried to wrap the other ankle around his neck, unable to quite reach, but the maneuver created new tighter feeling, gripping him snugly, which he enjoyed just as much as she did.

As long as he was being receptive, she was going to break out some dirty talk that seemed appropriate at the moment. Aria told him, "Harder. Harder. Fuck. Me. Harder," each time he crashed against her. He tried, oh, he tried, but it somehow wasn't working the way he wanted it to. His footing wasn't sure, the angle of his body was awkward and difficult to maintain without putting too much pressure on her legs. Perhaps with some forethought, perhaps some strategically placed pillows it would have been different, but Ezra saw a way to fix his misjudgment.

"Wha-? Don't stop!" she cried when he slid her backwards on the bed by the backs of her legs. He knelt on the mattress, walking himself closer to her, sat on his legs, slung her legs over his shoulders and entered her again. "Oooh. oooh," she repeated with each thrust. Aria twisted her ankles behind his back watching him shudder as she tightened her walls around him again. Ezra's right hand gripped both of her thighs while his left supported his new improved position. Eye-to-eye, she thought leave it to him to turn this good old-fashioned fucking into an intimate round of lovemaking. The line did tend to blur.

Then Ezra did something, either shifted his knee somehow, or pulled her leg up, or started leaning back more, or _something,_ and the feelings increased tenfold. He started hitting a different spot, a really really good one and her elbows turned to mush. "There. There," she uttered with her eyes squeezed tight in concentration.

She moaned every time he bumped against that spot, and felt these unusual butterflies in the pit of her stomach and tingle at the back of her throat. 'Senseless' was right. Her hands pressed against her sides, then slid up her chest and neck until her fingers were gripping clumps of her hair at the temples and palms were pressing against her ears. Aria said something that was probably supposed to be 'oh my god,' but came out more like "uuuhhmmullgguuh-h-h," and Ezra stopped feeling bad about the lack of foreplay and surprise attack.

Aria didn't know how much longer this could go on. Being right on the edge, right on the verge of that explosion she longed for, and didn't at the same time. The friction of him sliding in and out her tight walls, beating against the place sending shivers down her spine and signals of bliss to every nerve in her body was unbearable. He'd never seen her quite like this before, swallowing hard and moaning incoherently, as if she may have been in pain instead of intense intense pleasure, and was actually a little scared. "Do you, want me to, stop?" he asked, continuing to nudge against her. She never actually heard him, but somehow answered anyway in a low distant voice, "Don't. Ever. Stop."

She arched her back repeatedly, unable to control the movements he was causing her body to make. It felt like it could go on forever as he continued to dip in and out indefatigably. Aria lost all track of time, and space, and everything besides the notion that they were joined together and he was pushing her to experience this euphoria, sending her higher and higher, but never reaching a precipice. She was lucky breathing was an involuntary bodiy system because she surely would have forgotten to otherwise.

Ezra continued to move at the same moderate pace, afraid to shift at all, knowing he was pressing some sort of secret magic button over and over and over and each time he did, she made a noise which sounded like it came from very far away. Aria wasn't aware she was making any noise, or of anything at all besides the buzzing and humming of every cell in her body, from the ends of each strand of hair, to the tips of her painted toenails.

"Aria," he said, but she was too far under water to hear him. His heart was racing so fast as he tried to maintain control. Seeing her in this state was energizing, and gratifying knowing he could bring her such pleasure. "Aria," Ezra said again and she heard a fuzzy version of it outside her cloudy mind. _She_ may have thought this could last forever, but he knew it couldn't and he wasn't going to come until he got her there first. "Aria, look at me," he said. "Look at me," she heard through the haze, massaging her fingertips frenziedly into her scalp as the marrow in her bones melted, and fluttered her eyelids open. She'd forgotten how she loved the sight of him, defined chest muscles and jawline and piercing blue eyes, sweat forming around temples, a fine layer of perspiration covering his body. Eye-to-eye again, he used the hand which had been providing support for this endless consummation, and pressed it between her legs, teasing her clitoris, producing a new unimaginable sensation. A bead of sweat ran down his neck, and she felt the moisture from his chest on the backs of her legs.

He started going at her harder, faster, deeper, adroitly manipulating this other button while simultanously attacking the secret internal button. The combination was unendurable. Surely her body was about to shatter into a million pieces from the vibrations, crumble into a little pile of dust. He felt the tightening; she was so close. They had reached the pinnacle. Grunting, Ezra finally lost it, sending her crashing hard over the peak, erupting from the inside out. Her muscles clamped down around him and she started screaming, louder and louder each time he hammered her, raising her hips instinctively to meet him. He kept going, never wanting this voyage toward pure bliss to end. _Good god damn_, he thought when he came again, and so did she, hard. His body jerked and he grunted, feeling the undulations and the surge, the rush of ecstasy. She was crying out, and he made some noise of his own, as the cataclysmic orgasm flooded through her like perfection. He pushed her to the ultimate limit, causing her to shake and tremble uncontrollably, and feel like the back of her head might explode. She wanted to climb the walls and tear her hair out as she soared to the edge of sanity and back. With one final thrust, her screams turned to loud sighs, then quieter ones as she came down from the high, taking lungfuls of air. Utterly exhausted, he put her legs down on the bed, and crawled up to her, resting his head on her chest to feel her heart beat. The sound Ezra heard may have been coming from the pounding in his own eardrums, he couldn't be sure. He laid an arm across her body and kissed her neck, wanting to feel close even though they were just closer than humanly possible only moments ago.

"I can't move," she noted breathlessly, wiggling her toes to see if the feeling had returned, then shuddered as an aftershock hit unexpectedly.

"Don't. Don-move," Ezra said, hugging her now, listening to her heart beat again, feeling her pulse everywhere. He filled his lungs and released it, again and again, just as she did.

Aria tried to regain control of her faculties, blinking to see if the bright white glow she had seen had become permanent as the fluttering in her stomach seemed to be, wondering if anyone else had ever experienced such a mind-blowing exploit, and stated, "If I wasn't addicted to you already, I am now."

Ezra almost laughed at her comment, which was certainly a boost to his ego. "I wouldn't have it any other way." He twisted around, now resting his chin on her chest in order to see her face, cheeks redder than he'd ever seen them, eyes a luscious liquid bronze. "Your hair..." he said when he noticed the mess. The once sleek coif of perfect curls was now a certified disaster.

"I forgive you."

* * *

Link to Spencer's hat in my profile lol.

To Guest, it's been 8 days, but yeah, I guess that is forever lol.

Thanks to the other anonymous peeps as well.


	107. Chapter 107

[I cast Nicole de Boer as Ezra's mom. She's a little younger than the character, so just picture her like 5 years older. Or don't cuz I do make the point that she looks young. Links in my profile.]

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(Part 1 of 3)

Aria and Ezra had already been seated at the cozy Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side and looking over the menu when a slender dark-haired woman in her mid-40s arrived. She strode through the open interior double doors and looked around for a moment before spotting her son and the girl she'd been waiting to meet for months seated beside him in the long wooden booth along the back wall.

"Hi mom!" Ezra called as she approached, weaving her way around the other tables. She was slightly shorter than Ezra, as Aria noticed when he stood to give her a hug, and wore a pretty sleeveless blouse, grey pencil skirt, and simple understated jewelry. Her shoulder-length brown hair framed her delicate features and bangs were swept to the side. Aria had seen her in a photo or two, but was surprised by how stylish and beautiful Ezra's mother was in person. And young-looking. Aria wondered if she'd been a teen mother herself.

"There you are!" she said wearing a big smile on her face, which grew even larger when she said, "You must be Aria," and bent down to give her a hug.

"It's so nice to meet you, Mrs-," Aria began as Ezra's mom took the seat across from her, then realized she didn't know what to call her. She knew Ezra's parents had divorced, but didn't know if she had kept Fitz or reverted to her maiden name. In hindsight, Aria knew should have been better prepped for this meeting, her own fault, but also Ezra's.

"Kimball, but you can call me Lily." Her first name was actually Lilian, but she hadn't gone by that a single day in her life once she had anything to say about it. She found 'Lilian' to be too old-fashioned, even though it was a perfectly lovely name. "It's a pleasure to finally meet the girl Ezra is so enamored with."

Aria smiled bashfully as Lily continued, "I've been wanting to meet you for ages." She was able to get a better look at Aria now and found her to be very pretty, curvy, with long soft curls, which disappeared into her sheer black sweater, a youthful glow, and possible sunburn. Finally she had a face to go with the name. "Ezra's been keeping you all to himself for I don't even know how long. I only found out you existed... when was that, May?" she asked, turning her attention towards Ezra, diagonally across from her.

_He's been keeping me to himself a lot longer than that,_ Aria thought.

Ezra gave her a pointed look. "How are things?" he asked, intentionally changing the subject. "How's Ted?"

"Things are good. Ted's got his kids this weekend. They're at the pool today," Lily replied.

"It's a good day for it," Ezra said. "It's 95 degrees out there."

Aria nodded in agreement. She couldn't wait to get out of the heat earlier. Waiting a mere 90 seconds in the hot and humid subway station before the train arrived was akin to torture; thankfully the cars were air-conditioned. Then she and Ezra ducked into every shop between the restaurant and the subway exit 2 blocks away for brief reprieves from the sweltering heat.

Lily nodded as well and reached out like she might lay a hand on Aria's cheek when she said, "Oh, honey, you look a little flushed, it really is a killer day, isn't it?" She didn't actually touch her, but Aria couldn't help thinking it was such a _mom_ thing to do. How many times growing up had Ella touched her face to check if she was running a fever? It was sweet really.

Aria felt her knuckles to her own cheek, and agreed, "Mmhmm." She and Ezra were glad the hot day could serve as an excuse because both knew the rosiness painted across her cheeks and chest may well now be permanent, an after-effect of the events of the previous late afternoon.

"I don't know how it could get any hotter, but they say next week will be even worse," Ezra mentioned.

"Are we going to make small talk about the weather or can we talk about your girlfriend? That's why we're here right? So I can get to know her?" she asked, cocking her head.

"_You _brought it up!" he declared and engaged in the cutest staring contest Aria had ever seen. Both sets of eyes were wide, both grinning, both heads shaking slightly. Suddenly, they looked so much alike. Aria was thrilled to get to see Ezra interact with a member of his family. It was long overdue.

"No, that was definitely you," Lily disagreed. "Am I wrong?" she asked Aria, whose hand was now on the back of Ezra's neck.

She shook her head and Ezra said, "Ganging up on me already... I thought maybe we'd get through a single lunch before that started happening."

Aria pinched him lightly and asked Lily, "What would you like to know?"_ What decade was I born? What's my favorite subject in school? Do I happen to have a bun in the oven?_

"Tell me all about yourself," she said amiably.

Aria tried to think of where to start when the waitress turned up to take their order.

.

"So where were we?" Lily said afterwards. She had asked for chicken marsala without even glancing at the menu. They all had agreed to skip the appetizers and Ezra chose marinated steak and Aria ordered a penne and breaded chicken dish. She refrained from asking for a glass of orange juice to go along with it, even though she was in the mood for one, because she thought Lily might question it.

"You were trying to get Aria to tell you her whole life story," Ezra said, insinuating she may have been coming on too strong.

"Right. I'll start off easy," she smirked at Ezra then asked, "Where are you from?"

"Rosewood, PA. Born and raised," she answered, and cleared her throat. There was still a raspy edge to her voice.

"And what do you like to do? Do you have any hobbies?" Lily asked, hoping the question was benign enough for Ezra's liking.

"Uh, I write," Aria said, beginning to list her hobbies, "I like to read, I knit, I-"

"You knit?" Ezra asked. It was news to him.

"Mmhm. Not that much. I knit a lot while I was in Iceland." Aria had taught herself to knit about 5 years ago, and would do it all the time, making random items for the house, and fuzzy accessories for herself, but then let it fall by the wayside when Alison had expressed it was a lame hobby and made her look poor, like she couldn't afford to buy her own clothes. Aria had never really cared what anyone thought of her, but for some reason cared what Alison thought. Then when she moved to Iceland, picked it back up again, partially because wool scarves and mittens were quite handy to have around in the frigid climate of the subarctic island, and partially because Alison wasn't there to make fun of her for it.

"I didn't know that," he said, wondering what else they may not know about each other, but happy that there were still new things to learn, and that they had the rest of their lives to learn them.

"I haven't picked up the needles in a while," she shrugged. _Been kinda busy._

"You lived in Iceland?" Lily asked, taking a sip of her drink.

"Yeah, for about a year," Aria said with some amount of enthusiasm. So far things were going really well, and she hoped they would continue to go well for a while before certain secrets had to be revealed.

"Oh, for a study abroad?"

"No, it was for my dad's sabbatical," she explained. "We all moved to Iceland for the year." The room fell into shadow as a large and noisy truck passed outside.

"That's an interesting choice. You've been there, right Ezra?" Lily made the mental note to ask who "we all" included later.

"Briefly," he said. "I'd love to go back." He'd been to a lot of places that summer he'd traveled around Europe, Lily had a hard time remembering them all.

"Me too," Aria agreed. "I miss it sometimes."

"You two should plan a trip," Lily suggested.

"We talked about it. Maybe next year," Ezra stated and squeezed Aria's hand under the table. His last statement carried a second meaning his mother couldn't possibly understand.

Lily nodded approvingly. "What else do you like to do?"

"Um…"

Ezra interjected, "She likes to sing. She writes music and sings."

"It's not a big deal," Aria said, then gave Ezra a playful shove. "You're always telling people th-"

"Because you're too modest." Turning to his mom, he stated, "She's really talented."

Lily couldn't help smiling at them, thinking Aria's name was quite fitting. Aria picked up a piece of bread from the basket on the table to settle her stomach. Even though she was outwardly calm, the nerves had been getting to her.

"So are you in school?" Lily assumed, guessing Aria was younger than Ezra, though had no idea by how much. "What are you studying?"

_And here we go. _"I'm, uh, planning to go to Danby next year. Probably to study literature."

"Oh, I've heard of Danby. I think Ezra considered applying there."

The idling truck outside moved along, allowing daylight back into the restaurant. "I did," he said, "but Hollis accepted me early decision."

"That's right," Lily remembered as Ezra added, "Danby has a good English program." He had said the same thing the first time Aria had told him she'd like to go to school there. He'd also made sure Aria wasn't settling because of the situation they found themselves in and told her if her dream school was somewhere else, that they could go there, wherever it might be, but staying in Rosewood was part of her plan and he was more than happy to stay and build their life there if that's what she wanted.

"If you're not in school now, what do you do?" she asked, thinking it wasn't unusual for someone to take a year off to get some work experience before finishing college.

"I am in school… I'll be a senior in the fall," Aria replied, taking heed of Lily's reaction.

"In high school?"

"Mmmhm," Aria nodded.

Lily shot her son a confused look. "Oh, uh, I see. Ezra never mentioned it," she said, conversationally. Ezra hadn't mentioned a lot of things. "You must be, how old, then?"

"17." It almost sounded like a question the way her voice went up at the end.

"17," she repeated. Lily had no idea the girl of Ezra's dreams would be just that, a girl. She must be pretty special, Lily decided while Ezra tried to gauge how she was taking it. After a second or two of thought, Lily said, "Well, you seem very mature for your age. I wouldn't have guessed it."

"Thanks," Aria said, taking it as a compliment. "We don't really think about the age difference all that much."

"I see. ..Well, who am I to judge? My first husband was 6? 7 years older, so…" She didn't finish the sentence. Why equate their promising relationship to her failed marriage? "Love knows no age, right?"

"Right," Aria agreed. _That wasn't so hard._

"Soo…" Ezra started, changing the subject. "I got the card you sent for my birthday. Thanks."

Lily smiled, lost in thought.

"Did you get the-" Ezra continued, but Lily started talking at the same time.

"Rosewood is a pretty small town, isn't it?" she asked, with her eyes looking off to the right like she was trying to figure something out. She had been to Rosewood once to see Ezra during a parents' weekend at Hollis.

"It's fairly small," Aria answered.

"There's probably just the one high school then?"

"Yes," Aria said, realizing where this was going. She couldn't remember if they had decided to tell her the truth or not.

Lily had put the pieces together. "You can tell me to mind my own business, but I have to ask. Ezra, you were teaching at Rosewood High last fall." It was a statement, not a question. She knew he had been working there because he had called her minutes after he'd gotten the job, excited beyond belief. Most college students didn't land their dream job immediately after graduation. Ezra had known how fortunate he was.

"Yes, I was. And it's not what you think." _It's worse._

"She wasn't your student?"

"No, she was, but-"

"Ezra!"

"Nothing happened until after he got the job at Hollis," Aria assured her, hoping it was the right thing to do. In her mind, it was the _only_ thing to do. It was hard enough keeping track of which lies she had told to which people and would get too confusing if everyone knew the true origins of their relationship besides Ella and Byron.

"I'm sorry, I'm just a little shocked here. From what I expected-"

"He didn't do anything wrong, if that's what you're thinking." Aria started to understand why Ezra's mom might be disappointed in him and didn't want him to have to feel that way. Rule number one in teaching is probably don't get personally involved with your students. She had always thought they were above it, that the rules didn't apply to them because there was something bigger between them than words in some stupid rulebook, but from his mother's perspective, a teacher by profession, the truth would look really bad.

"No, I know. I know he wouldn't." It wasn't even a question in her mind. The fact that his mother couldn't even entertain the notion of him breaking the professional code of conduct by having a relationship with a student made him feel like shit. But telling her the truth was not an option. They lied. That's what they did. They lied to the world because the lies were what the world wanted to hear.

Ezra looked down so his mother couldn't see his face. She was good at reading people, especially him, having raised him since birth. He was gladder than ever that he hadn't mentioned he was seeing anyone last Christmas.

"How did this all happen then?" she asked, leaning imperceptibly back into her chair.

Ezra looked up in order to tell her a bunch of untrue things, which she might even buy based on how quickly she accepted the first lie, but Aria jumped in first.

"My dad works at Hollis too," Aria explained. "I was on campus and saw Ezra there and stopped to say hello, this was shortly after he'd started working there. We talked for a while and realized we actually had a lot in common. There was no reason I couldn't be friends with a former teacher, so I dropped by again and again and eventually we both realized this was more than just a friendship." Aria hoped it didn't sound too rehearsed. She had spent a lot of time coming up with the story months ago and a lot of time picturing it. It felt like telling the truth.

Coming from Aria, Ezra knew Lily bought it, since she didn't know Aria's tells, if she had any tells. Ezra would not want to face Aria in a poker match.

Aria wondered if Ezra wished the fake story were the true story, thinking it'd sure make things simpler. Ezra intertwined his fingers with hers and kissed her hand when a busboy came by to refill their water glasses. Aria's was nearly empty again. One by one they each said, "Thank you."

It wasn't terribly unusual for a teacher and former student to get together, Lily thought, though generally both parties were older. Her college roommate Denise wound up marrying their psychology professor, but she hadn't stayed in touch so Lily didn't know if they were still together. She began to understand what all the secrecy was about, why Ezra hadn't made the introduction sooner and turned down all of her offers to come down for a visit and invitations to come up for a visit. They probably needed permission from her parents to even make this trip. "What does your dad do at Hollis?" Lily asked.

"He's an English professor," Aria said, and as she said it, it occurred to her how it sounded. She was afraid Ezra's mother was psychoanalyzing her as she spoke. She had heard that old adage 'Girls marry their fathers and boys marry their mothers,' but never given it a single ounce of thought, until now. Surely it did _not_ apply. Aria didn't want to follow this line of thought to any possibly disturbing conclusions so she was glad when Lily asked another question.

"And how did your parents react when you told them about this relationship? You have told them, haven't you?" She aimed the second part at Ezra, who hadn't been saying much.

"It's taking some getting used to…" Aria answered for him again. "Especially since my mom works at the high school too."

Lily's eyebrows couldn't hide her surprise. "I imagine it _would_ take some getting used to…"

Nobody said anything while Lily took in this new piece of information, on top of everything else. Aria scuffed the heel of her sandal into the base of the booth, waiting.

"I apologize," she said, flattening her hand to her chest. "I know my son loves you and even though all of this comes as a surprise, I am not judging. I just can't help but put myself in your mother's shoes. If my daughter came home and introduced her former English teacher as her boyfriend, I don't know what I'd do! And you're saying Ezra was a colleague of both your mother and your father? That's some complicated situation."

"We know it's complicated," Ezra finally spoke, after letting Aria do all the talking so far. "But we are making it work. Ella has made a real effort to understand us."

Lily asked, "Ella is your mother?"

"Uh huh," Aria answered.

"Well I give her a lot of credit. I can't say how I'd handle it. Anna is only 12. Luckily we don't have to worry about these things quite yet."

"Anna?" Aria asked.

"Anna is my step-daughter. Anna's 12 and Neal, my step-son, is 9. Ezra never mentioned them?"

Aria shook her head. "It never came up..." Lily shot her son another disapproving look as Aria turned to him and said, "You have another brother and a _sister_ and never told me!"

"I've only met them on a handful of occasions," Ezra explained. It probably was something that should have come up sometime over the past, oh, 11 months, but beyond mentioning that his mom had remarried, he'd never gone into any detail about his extended family. It wasn't a secret; his step-siblings were rarely on his mind.

"If you came to visit more often, you might get to know them a little better." It was clear to Aria that this wasn't the first time Lily had said this to her son.

Lily wondered if there was some resentment there, over the fact she had remarried and started over with a new family in a new city. But that wasn't it. Ezra was happy that his mother had found happiness.

The truth was Ezra hadn't made much of an effort to get to know his step-siblings, and he knew it. Any time he had gone to visit, they were at their mother's, and when they were actually in the same room together, he'd say hi, but didn't really know how to talk to kids that age. "I know," he said. "It's not intentional. Things always get in the way."

"I can see that," Lily said kindly, referring to Aria. "You two could come over for dinner tonight," she offered.

"We have plans already," he declined. Hardy and Melanie were taking them out. Somewhere. It was to be a surprise. "I'm sorry. Next time though. I promise."

Aria nodded in agreement. "I'd like to meet everybody." Perhaps if she'd known ahead of time, they could have left time in their busy schedule to see them this weekend.

The waitress arrived with their meal and Aria excused herself to use the ladies' room. She purposely angled her body away from the table and hid herself behind the waitress as she stood.

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Link to Aria's sweater, which she's wearing over the Urban Outfitters dress in my profile.

It's funny, on the show Perception, the woman who plays Ezra's mom on the show was on it one week, the following week Shane Coffey aka Holden was on it, and the week after that, the actress I have cast as Ezra's mom had a part. Sort of a weird coincidence.


	108. Chapter 108

[I'm not sure my readers will fully appreciate the second half of this chapter. Depends on your age/where you grew up. Hope you find it funny anyway. ]

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(Part 2 of 3)

Lily politely waited for the waitress to finish and leave before leaning forward and whispering loudly, "This is the girl you're going to marry! ?"

"Yes, that's her," Ezra confirmed.

"You left out so much!"

_Understatement. _"Can you really blame me?" he asked. "I just wanted you to meet her first, so you wouldn't have a preconceived notion."

Lily had to ask, "Are you sure you know what you're doing? This is real, not some, infatuation?"

"This is more real than I could possibly describe. I promise you." Ezra tasted a piece of caramelized onion from his plate, but waited to eat any more.

Relaxing back into her chair, Lily stated, "Well, I already like her more than Jackie."

"Mom." _You just love bringing her up, don't you? _Jackie and Lily hadn't clicked. They were both polite and got along fine on the surface, but the fact that Jackie hadn't hit it off with his mother, who was warm and friendly to everyone, should have been an indication to Ezra that it wouldn't last. In hindsight, it was incredibly obvious; at the time, he'd been blind to it, too in love with the idea of being in love to see clearly.

"Well, I do. You couldn't see it, but I knew she wasn't right for you."

"And what do you think of Aria?" he asked, bringing the discussion back on track.

"I can tell she makes you happy," Lily admitted with a genuine smile. "Really happy." And she couldn't help adding, "Not like the way you were when you were with Jackie."

Ezra chose to ignore the last part. "She does. She's the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Now I understand why you haven't proposed. She's not even legal!" It explained a lot.

He was quite glad his mother was back to joking with him, but kind of needed her to shut up now. "I'll do it when it's right. Not a moment sooner. Now let's change the subject. She'll be back any second."

Lily shrugged, not the type to interfere in her grown children's lives. She just wanted to remain a part of them and Ezra seemingly hiding an important part of his life from her these past few months hadn't sat well. Hearing Ezra had gone to visit her sister's family back home while he hadn't been taking her phone calls was confusing, and hurtful, even after Shelley had tried to rationalize it for her to no avail. Lily had left a strongly worded voicemail for Ezra on Monday saying if he couldn't give her some sort of explanation for his behavior, she would be paying him a visit, uninvited, to find out for herself. She was relieved to get his message the next day agreeing visit, _and_ bring Aria. Lily adjusted the knife and fork beside her plate, also waiting for Aria to return before beginning to eat. She was pleased her son had found love, even if it was in an unconventional manner.

Ezra finally started giving some thought as to how to give his mother the good news, since the hardest part was now out of the way. It would probably be best to tell her himself instead of letting Aria's belly take care of it for them. He couldn't count on her not noticing when Aria sat back down even though her outfit did disguise it pretty well. '_There's something else I have to tell you.' _That seemed like a good way to start. The rest he'd just let come out naturally.

"Actually," Ezra began when the busboy appeared out of nowhere to top off their water glasses again. This guy was really on top of things. "How is everything?" the young man asked with a Southern Italian accent.

"Great," "Just fine," Ezra and Lily responded at the same time Aria was making her way back to the table. She found his presence very convenient and hid behind him as she sat down.

The busboy nodded pleasantly and Aria said, "Ooo smells good," and picked up her fork. There was silence for a few seconds while they all dug in, not counting silver utensils scraping the white plates.

"How do you like it?" Lily asked Aria.

"It's good," she said with enthusiasm. "A little spicy." Just as she had hoped. "What about yours?"

"Delicious. As always. I come here all the time. I think I've tried everything on the menu at least once over the past few years." This place was a local favorite, and a personal favorite, serving authentic Italian cuisine only a few blocks from the apartment she called home, and the location of the 3rd date she'd shared with her current husband, to whom she'd been happily married to for about 4 years.

Ezra had been here once before, a few years ago. "This was a good choice," Ezra said approvingly as Aria's knife and fork meandered over to his plate. "Feel free," he said sarcastically as she cut a tiny piece off his steak and ate it.

"I'm just stealing a bite. I wanted to try it."

"And?"

"I like mine better," she shrugged and picked up her water glass. Lily watched her drink it down, her third full glass since the meal began. When Aria noticed, she self-consciously said, "I guess I'm really thirsty.." _It takes a lot of water to grow a person, you know. _Aria wondered if Ezra planned to tell her soon. _I could just blurt it out_, she thought, but it seemed like Ezra's job. However, Aria decided if he procrastinated too long, she would make the announcement herself.

Lily felt rude for staring. "There's nothing wrong with that. Drinking a lot of water is very good for you," she said, "especially your complexion. I try to remember to carry a bottle of water with me, because when you get to be my age, you need all the help you can get." The beauty regimen became lengthier with each passing year.

"_Pfft_, you are _not_ old," Aria blurted. It seemed that lately, if she wasn't paying attention, she had the tendency to say things without using the proper amount of tact the situation may call for. She'd accidentally called Spencer's outfit 'frumpy' not too long ago. '_What I meant to say was... fabulous,' _she had covered, not so smoothly. Aria's guard was partially down, since she felt comfortable around Ezra's mom, which would account for the blunt comment.

It was such an off-the-cuff remark, Lily knew Aria wasn't just saying it to be nice. "Well, flattery will get you _everywhere_. I think we're off to a good start."

Aria laughed, slightly embarrassed. At least she hadn't said something insulting, like the other day when she said to Ella, '_Why are you wearing a scarf? It's summer. ..And it's ugly_.' Ella was quite offended. And then took it off because Aria was right. "In that case, I like your earrings," she said, gesturing. Lily was wearing a pair of faceted rose quartz drop earrings which had caught Aria's eye earlier when they had momentarily reflected the light.

"Why thank you," she said, and returned the compliment. "And yours as well. Feathers are very in right now I hear." Or so she had been told by her 12 year old.

_Feathers are always in. _"Thank you," Aria said, nodding. Ezra was glad Lily hadn't picked up on anything yet. Being a schoolteacher, she was very good at sussing out dishonesty, and getting confessions, but Aria and Ezra were even better at pretending she wasn't pregnant. Lily hadn't an inkling they had anything bigger to share after the first revelation. Ezra was still working out how to tell her.

Lily changed the subject. "How is it going at the tutoring center?" she asked Ezra, cutting off an edge of the chicken on her plate. She would have included how Ezra had been dodging her calls the past few weeks, but now she understood why, and it wasn't anything terrible.

"Really well," he said, "I forgot to thank you for suggesting it after I got the job." Lily used to do the same over the summers, and had given him the idea when he mentioned looking for a way to supplement his income over the break.

"Oh, it was your idea?" Aria said. Something else he'd failed to mention. Lily nodded, unable to speak at the moment because she was chewing. "He really likes it," Aria continued. "There's this one student, he's in 7th grade?" she asked, turning to Ezra.

"Going into 8th." He knew which boy Aria was talking about since he'd told her about him just the other day.

"Who didn't like to read when the summer started, falling behind in his classes, and now he's reading ahead of his grade level."

"That's very impressive," Lily stated.

"I just found out what he liked and had him read something he was interested in." Ezra had introduced him to graphic novels and suddenly the boy liked to read.

"He pretends like it's not a big deal, but I think it is." Ezra had heard this already. She couldn't take a single compliment about her musical talent, but simply doing his job was deserving of high praise. "That kid is going to do better in school now, he's going to grow up liking to read. You've basically changed his life."

"That's an exaggeration."

"See?" She turned back to Lily. "He won't take any credit. I know my opinion might not be the most objective, but he was honestly one of the best teachers I've ever had." And she laughed hysterically inside her own head at the double entendre, which the others politely ignored.

"I don't doubt it," Lily said.

"I like working one on one with a student," Ezra began, going back to the original question. _You sure do,_ Aria thought, and Ezra heard the double meaning of his words too, and continued, "as opposed to being in front of a whole class, though I like that too."

His mother politely ignored his statement as well. "It's true," she agreed. "You can tailor the lesson to the individual, and slow down if they need to."

"What grade do you teach?" Aria asked, sliding an escaped bowtie back onto her plate.

"5th," she replied. "At a public school out on Long Island."

"Is it a long commute?"

"It could be worse," Lily shrugged. "I'm used to it. Gives me plenty of time to catch up on my reading."

Aria nodded, at first understandingly, then sort of looked off to the side, wondering how much reading you can get done whilst driving, which she assumed was how she must commute.

Lily saw the slight confusion in Aria's eyes, "I listen to audiobooks. It makes the drive bearable." Aria smiled in acknowledgement. "So when did you guys get in? This morning?"

"No yesterday," Ezra said. "We saw Wicked last night." And before that, they'd managed to find Aria a cute red cocktail dress with a more forgiving waistline.

"Oh, how'd you like it?" Lily asked brightly.

"It was amazing!" Aria said. "I loved it! Have you seen it?"

"No," she said, "Living in the city you forget to take advantage of things like that."

"You should go," Aria recommended. "How old is Anna? 12? She would probably love it. Has she seen the Wizard of Oz?"

"Yes, of course." The classic was a staple in her house around Thanksgiving.

"So she'll have an idea of the characters a little bit, not that it's really the same."

Ezra sat back and casually ate his lunch, enjoying watching Aria and his mom getting along so well. Nothing to worry about, he knew it.

"That's a very good idea, actually. I'm sure she'd enjoy it." Anna had a birthday coming up.

"Maybe evennn..." _Nate? Nick? Noel? No, I'd remember that._ "What is her brother's name? I'm sorry, I forgot."

"Neal."

"Maybe even Neal would like it." Ezra had dropped his left hand under the table for a moment to give Aria's thigh a squeeze. The baby's name came up a lot more than he'd ever expected. He had thought once that choosing such a common word for a name might have been a mistake, but they were both so attached to it, it was too late to change. "My parents took us to see the Lion King when we were about that age and my brother liked it."

Lily thought Spiderman would probably appeal to the 9-year-old boy more than Wicked. They all turned their heads briefly toward the sound of a loud noise coming from the kitchen, then Lily asked, "You have a brother?"

"Mmhm, Mike, he's about 2 years younger."

Lily nodded and a thought popped into her head. "Oh, Ezra, do you know what was on TV yesterday? The Sandlot. I watched it with Neal, actually sat down and watched it, even though you used to play that tape practically every day." There was a stretch of a few months or so during Ezra's childhood when he had been obsessed with this movie. He still considered it a favorite, though hadn't seen it in many years.

"Oh, really?" Ezra asked. "Did he like it? Did you?" How could anyone not like that movie?

"It was very cute," she said.

Aria couldn't believe how excited Ezra was all of a sudden. "What is it? The Sandlot?" she asked.

A look of pure shock came over Ezra's face as he turned to her and asked, "You've never seen it?"

"No, I don't think so," Aria said.

"_You're killing me smalls," _he said, apparently reciting a line from the film.

Aria gave him an odd look. "Is that supposed to mean something to me?" Ezra nodded slowly. "What's it about?" she asked.

"It's about baseball," Lily helpfully interjected.

Ezra was momentarily speechless. Aria said, "In what universe would I care about a baseball movie," brushing it off. She thought she'd missed out on some cinematic masterpiece the way he was acting.

"It is so much more than 'a baseball movie,'" he repeated with a patronizing tone. It was as if she were stomping directly on his 8-year-old self.

"If you say so." Aria turned back to her plate.

She was taking this so lightly. A terrible thought occurred to him. "Have you seen The Mighty Ducks?"

"No..."

"Any of them? !"

"No..." Aria repeated with the exact same tone, but louder, "aren't they about hockey?" _Helloo.. did you forget who you're talking to?_

He ignored the question. "Air Bud?"

She shook her head, biting a piece of chicken off her fork. Aria had consumed so much hot sauce the past few months that her taste buds didn't even consider this dish to be spicy anymore. Still tasty though.

"Free Willy?"

"Mm-mm."

"Casper? Jumanji?" Ezra continued naming his favorite movies from when he was a kid and Aria kept shaking her head. He grew more horrified by the second. So that time they had driven past a farm, or a sewage plant disguising itself as a farm, and he quoted, '_Goooldberrrg!'_ and she laughed, she hadn't even gotten the joke? Ezra should have known better. Had he quoted something from an old Katharine Hepburn film, she'd have gotten it.

"You are naming movies which were made before I was born," Aria stated. Did he not realize that already?

"So? We watch silent films on a practically weekly basis." He did have a point. Lily thought Ezra must have found the _oldest_ 17-year-old on the planet if she enjoyed watching silent films. "What about Homeward Bound?"

"Yes," she said and Ezra looked relieved. "That one I've seen. I think. But I don't remember if I finished it." Even as a young child, Aria preferred to watch old children's movies like The Little Princess and Pollyanna over recent ones.

Ezra's 'relieved' face reverted back to 'horrified.' "You didn't see the end?" There were no words.

Now it was Lily's turn to sit back and watch them. Ezra was not facing forward anymore, he was sitting sideways with one leg crossed so he could properly interrogate his girlfriend.

"I said I don't remember. What happened?" Not that she really cared.

"Okay, moving on." The question did not deserve an answer. "What about... Jingle All the Way?"

"Doesn't ring a bell." Aria looked to Lily for props for the terrible pun since Ezra was too stunned by her negative response to notice. The two women shared an amused look.

"It's Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad fighting over a toy, a _Turbo Man action figure," _he said, imitating the thick Austrian accent of the star of this film. Aria cracked a huge smile because he sounded more like Cookie Monster. She was _so_ gonna get him to talk like that again, perhaps get him to read something, like the Constitution or the first page of Moby Dick using that voice, just for kicks. "It's a so-bad-it's-good sort of movie," Ezra added, but didn't necessarily mean it. The kid in him loved that movie, for real.

Aria couldn't think of a single Arnold Schwarzenegger movie she cared for. "Who the heck is Sinbad?"

"Okay, we are watching that at Christmas," he laid down the law.

"What about 3 Ninjas?" Lily suggested to Ezra, highly entertained by this whole exchange, remembering how Ezra would run around the house pretending to be a ninja during the weeks he was obsessed with that particular movie.

"Negatory," the _17_-year-old responded facetiously.

"We used to rent that one from the video store all the time," Ezra recalled. He wasn't expecting a yes.

"Until I gave in and just bought it for him," Lily said. "It was cheaper in the long run."

"I have never been in a video store," Aria said, mostly to bug him, also because it was true.

"Are you serious?" Ezra ran a hand through his hair, dumbfounded.

"They make these things called _Dee Vee Dees_ now," she spelled out as if she were speaking to a 3-year-old. You should check into that."

Ezra rolled his eyes, letting her sarcasm go once again. "Okay, what about A Christmas Story?"

"Of course." It only played on TV 24 hours straight starting every Christmas Eve. Who hasn't seen that movie? "And I know neither of us were born when that came out."

"Well that's something," he said. "We're not waiting for m-" He had been about to say 'We're not waiting for Maeby to grow up to watch the rest of these,' but stopped himself in time. "We're going to watch all of these movies," he stated instead, thinking maybe it was time to tell his mom about Maeby.

"Okay," she agreed, thinking she may have to take up knitting again to get through this venture, and turned to Lily. "We never talk about this stuff, I swear. You must think we're so strange." The 6-year gap between them really did not come up all that much. It just _was_. The only time they ever seemed to talk about it was when they were discussing music. Last year, they made a deal that if Aria listened to Pearl Jam, Hootie & The Blowfish, and Gin Blossoms, quintessential 90s bands, that Ezra would check out some of Aria's more contemporary faves - Keane, Silversun Pickups, and Muse. Aria hadn't mentioned that she had discovered the last band through the Twilight movie soundtrack. She had actually lied about ever seeing, or reading it, so she didn't come off as another ignorant Twilight groupie, like half the girls in her class. The couple seemed to have saved up all this talk, specifically to magnify the age difference in front of Ezra's mom.

"No, not at all," she said kindly, remembering similar conversations she had had while dating her first husband. She had actually made him sit through Fame, her favorite film since she was 15 years old, packed with lively song and dance numbers.

"We do actually have a lot in common, aside from a love for movies made in the mid-90s apparently."

"It was a good decade," he said, grinning at Aria, "for cinema."

_Cinema. _She rolled her eyes and gave him a very quick kiss, just to wipe the smirk off his face.

* * *

Link to Aria's dress from last night and Lily's earrings in my profile.

I substituted Hootie & The Blowfish for Sublime because it fit too perfectly and I like to connect the story to the show even though it broke off continuity-wise pretty early. I really wanted to put the Offspring there too, but refrained lol. Guess it's kinda obvious now that I'm Ezra's age, not Aria's.

No offense intended to Twilight fans. I actually like Twilight, but some people do get a little nuts about it, and I definitely do not see Aria as one of those people. Perhaps in secret.

Guest - you'll have to wait and see! Thanks!

Notinyourlifetimehoney - I loved the Dead Zone! Guess who I'm gonna cast as Lily's husband haha.


	109. Chapter 109

(Part 3 of 3)

"So," Lily began to change the subject, "Aria, you have a beautiful name, I've thought so since the first time I heard it. Where does it come from?"

"You'd have to ask my mom. I'm glad she chose it though. I've never met another 'Aria.' My brother on the other han-" Aria gasped.

"What is it?" Ezra asked worriedly at the same time Lily asked, "What's wrong?"

Aria turned to Ezra and cried excitedly, "She kicked!" This time she was sure. Over the past few weeks she'd been feeling some possible movement, but she'd been unsure if it was really the baby, or only her imagination. And the doctor had said it's normal to not feel anything until later on, so she wasn't holding her breath for it.

For a split second Lily thought Aria was accusing her of kicking her, having no concept of there being any other 'she' at their table. And then she figured it out.

"I felt her kick! Feel!" Aria frantically grabbed Ezra's hand and laid it on her stomach.

Lily's fork clattered to the plate. Ezra continued staring into Aria's glossy eyes, waiting to feel his baby kick again, which happened moments later, the slightest little flicker under his hand. "I felt it!" he said enthusiastically. "That's amazing!" Evidently, Maeby was sick of waiting for her father to get his act together and decided to make herself known.

Ezra looked at his mom, whose jaw had dropped. "Do you want to-?" Then turning back to Aria, "Can she?"

Aria nodded rapidly, one tear sliding down the side of her face.

Lily glared at her son, then her expression softened and she stood up from her chair, sliding into the booth next to Aria. Aria grabbed her hand and placed it where Ezra's hand had just been. They waited. Lily tried to process the fact that this girl she'd just met was carrying her son's baby. Certain things regarding Ezra's behavior made a little more sense to her. "She has feet," Aria squeaked incredulously at Ezra. "And strong little legs, there! You feel it!" Another distinct kick, which felt like a little twitch. Aria's voice cracked as she cried, "Ezra, she's kicking," in disbelief. "She's kicking me!"

He found it just as mind-boggling as she did. Ezra's eyes grew a little moist as well as Aria's hands left her belly and pulled his face to hers, both too overwhelmed to do anything more than simply press their lips firmly together for a long tender moment.

"Sorry I'm freaking out," Aria apologized when they broke apart. "I'm sure this is exactly the way you pictured finding out you're having a grandchild."

Lily was speechless. Her hand was still on Aria's belly, Ezra's on top of it, and she felt three more little nudges against her palm in quick succession. It was impossible to remember to be angry at this moment. Aria reached for the cloth napkin on table to blot her tears. After a few more seconds, Aria declared, "I think she's done." How she knew, she wasn't sure.

Lily smoothly returned to her seat across from them.

"We didn't mean to spring it on you like that," Ezra began, nervous, but glad it was out in the open. "That's what this whole visit was about, to tell you the news."

"I don't know what to say," Lily said, clearly shocked and trying to process all the brand new information being thrown at her.

"Say you're happy for us," Ezra suggested. "Because we couldn't be happier."

"I- I- I- I'm happy for you," she stumbled over her words, but did mean them. "I just wasn't expecting this. How far along are you?"

Aria placed the folded napkin onto her lap and pressed her hands against her belly. _So real. _"About 18 weeks," Aria answered without much conscious thought. She was too busy imagining the baby, flexing her tiny arms and legs, growing bigger every day.

_18 weeks._ "Why didn't you tell me?" Lily asked Ezra.

_I was scared. Sometimes it's easier to lie than tell the truth. _He went with, "We wanted to tell you in person."

Lily shook her head at him slowly, a million different thoughts running through her mind, most of them overpowered by _happy._

"I've never felt her kick before. Not like that. It's incredible," Aria said, mainly to herself, smiling broadly.

"It's incredible until they start kicking at all hours of the night and-" she cut herself off when she realized she was sounding like one of those annoying women who love to remind an expectant mother of all the unpleasant parts of pregnancy she had to look forward to. "It is an incredible feeling," she agreed. After a moment, Lily said, "I bet it was the spicy food."

"I don't know. I've been eating spicy things all along-"

"She puts hot sauce on everything," Ezra added.

"I do," Aria admitted. "Pretty much."

"I can relate," Lily said. "Only while I was pregnant did I crave spicy foods, never before, never after. ..I've always heard that meant you were carrying a boy, and in my case, it was true. But you said she?" A granddaughter. She was still having trouble holding the idea in her head.

Ezra's head snapped in Aria's direction, eyes wide like he hadn't considered the possibility for a second since the day she told him it was a girl. "I didn't know that! Did you know that?"

"I've heard it," Aria said indifferently.

"It could just be an old wives' tale," Lily added.

"We don't know _for sure_ it's a girl," Ezra said to Aria. "Maybe we should start thinking of boy names, just in case." He didn't think his son would appreciate being called Maeby. Son. Suddenly his vision of the future had changed. The doll-like version of Aria's face he had in his mind was replaced by a picture of his own, which he had seen in baby pictures, and this child was no longer playing with dolls on the floor of the apartment they had not yet moved into, but toy trucks.

The vision didn't last long because Aria finally met his gaze and shook her head 'no' with a pitying expression that came across clearly as 'bless your heart.' Nothing could convince her she was carrying a boy. No silly ring test, not Ashley Marin telling her she's carrying low, and no amount of hot sauce and jalapeño cravings. Aria _knew_ she was right. Ezra didn't know what to think anymore.

"I don't think it had anything to do with the food. I think she's just really happy to meet her grandma for the first time," Aria suggested instead.

"Grandma…" Lily said, considering the idea of being called 'grandma.' This lunch had not turned out anything like she had expected.

"She doesn't have to call you grandma. You can pick something else. Ella's got dibs on Nana though." Aria called Ella's mother Nana, and Ella called her mother's mother Nana. It was becoming a family tradition.

They all laughed. "Grandma's nice. I like grandma. Just didn't expect anyone would be calling me that quite yet." Though she definitely saw it in Ezra's future sooner than his brother's. It just hit her again what big news this was. "You've been holding out on me!" she scolded her son, playfully pushing his knee off to the side with her foot under the table. "That's this one for you though," she gestured at him as she turned to Aria, "never shares anything unless you drag it out of him."

"I know!" Aria agreed, taking Ezra's hand in hers. "We're working on that," she smiled at Ezra, patting his hand. It was true he hadn't been the most forthcoming. "Would you excuse me a minute? I want to call my mom, tell her she kicked."

As Aria stood, the grandmotherly-type woman at the table beside them lightly caught her arm. "Congratulations, dear," she said, having had a clear view of Ezra and Lily fussing over Aria earlier. Aria gave her a gracious smile and the others watched her continue on her way to the front of the restaurant, dialing her phone. She stood in the vestibule, long dark chestnut hair glistening in a ray of sunlight, face lit up in recollection while she described the events to her mother. "Mom, she's kicking!" she reported, the tears of joy starting up again.

Lily reached across the table to touch her son's hand. Looking into his eyes, she warmly stated, "I get it now."

.

During the rest of lunch, the three of them made up for lost time talking about anything and everything. Lily told Aria all about Ezra as a baby and how different he was than his younger brother, Isaac. Isaac was away at school in DC, studying political science, currently interning at a law firm this summer. Aria found out more about Ezra's family, how his dad, William, moved to Florida and remarried and that he hadn't seen him in a few years.

Lily mentioned the city of Heidelberg at one point, in relation to a discussion about the best meal they'd ever had. "Heidelberg?" Aria asked.

"Germany," Lily said. "William worked for the army and we lived there for about a year."

"Oh, you lived in Germany? When?"

"For most of 1988." Aria looked puzzled, and rightfully so. 1988 was the year of Ezra's birth. Lily clarified, "He was born on the army base there. We left a few months later."

Aria spun to face Ezra. "You're not even an American citizen! What's next? Is Ezra Fitz even your real name?"

"Yes," he laughed, "and yes I am an American citizen."

Aria looked to Lily for confirmation, then said, "Well I might want to see some documentation to prove it."

"Ezra, honey," Lily said, "you bring these things on yourself."

When Aria mentioned that Ezra had been teaching her to play guitar, Lily couldn't resist telling her that Ezra was once in a band and originally learned to play the guitar to impress girls in middle school, and was not very successful on that front.

"You were in a band?" Aria asked, pleased by this little tidbit. It was yet another part of his past Ezra had failed to mention. He had only told her how he'd asked to take lessons when he was younger, quit them after only a few, and then taught himself, the exact same thing she had done with piano.

"No, not really," he said, shaking his head dismissively.

"You shouldn't lie to her, Ezra," Lily smirked, "it wouldn't be right."

"Mom, could you not-"

"As your mother, it is my right to thoroughly embarrass you in front of your girlfriend." _Slash future wife._

It was no use trying to get out of it. Ezra agreed to tell Aria about the band he started with his cousin David and a friend from school when they were 12 years old. It was a Foo Fighter's tribute band apparently. They called themselves "The Monkey's Wrench" and would practice in David's garage after school. Aria could do nothing but laugh at this information. Oh how she planned to tease him.

Aria learned that Ezra acquired his love for classic novels and old movies from his grandfather, Gerald, who passed away a few years ago and had left him the car. When Ezra first mentioned his middle name was Gerald, back during the fall, Aria thought the similarity to the name of one of his favorite authors was a cute coincidence, but during this lunch, she learned it was intentional. "They thought they were being clever," Ezra told Aria. Lily explained that she wanted her side of the family represented in Ezra's name and the literary nod was an added bonus.

They talked about Aria's family, about her brother and the time they spent in Iceland. They discussed her family's reaction to the news of the baby and how Aria's father was shutting her out. Lily was easy to talk to and Aria felt like she'd known her for years. They didn't delve too far into the Byron issues though because it was supposed to be a pleasant lunch. And it _was_ pleasant. Any fear Aria had of Ezra's mom thinking she was a slut who'd wormed her way into Ezra's life was long gone. That was what she had been nervous about, that Lily would think she wasn't good enough for her son, but it was clear now that Lily wouldn't have made her feel that way even if she was thinking it.

Lily talked about her students and her teaching career. They discussed what books they had all read lately and shared their recommendations. Aria told Lily she would surely get along well with Ella since they had so much in common.

When Aria excused herself to the ladies' room once again, Lily said, "So you're friends with you're mother in law, huh? That's... interesting. Lucky. Unusual." She had not gotten along well with her mother-in-law and the poor relationship had been a constant point of contention in her marriage.

Ezra shook his head dismissively at her teasing tone. "I think that would probably cease to be the case the day I ever refer to her as 'mother-in-law.'"

Lily laughed, then took a serious breath. "Ezra, she is so young." It had to be said. Regardless of how lovely she found Aria to be and how very happy she was to be having a grandchild, Aria's age did pose an issue. And Ezra was so young himself.

"I know," Ezra said. He knew this conversation would be happening, if not during this lunch, then later on over the phone. "I don't know what else I'm supposed to say about that. We didn't plan this, but I'm not going to let it hold her back, from anything. Lots of people have children while they're getting their degree." At least that's what he told himself to make himself feel better. "You did."

"It's not the same. I took night classes and Shelley was right there." They had lived very nearby Lily's sister Shelley, whose house Ezra spent nearly as much time at as his own growing up. For the first 5 or so years of Ezra's life, Lily went to night school, determined to complete her teaching degree. "I'm not saying you can't do it, I don't know what I'm saying."

"I do. And I've thought the same thing. Look," Ezra said, "Ella is willing to help us as much as we need and I only have to be on campus so many hours, half of my work I can do from home. We will make it work, I'm sure."

Ezra's confidence, even if misplaced, was reassuring. Babies were always more work than you expected. "You could have told me at any time. Did you think I'd be anything other than supportive?"

"No, I just had too much else to think about. It was complicated. I'm sorry." Lily understood, or thought she did. She decided it didn't make a difference if she knew last month or the month before or the month before that. All she cared about was knowing now. She couldn't wait to tell he husband. And her sister. "Mom?" Ezra said, pulling her from her thoughts.

"Hm?"

"I'm havin' a baby." The expression on his face coupled with his entire demeanor could only be described by one word. _Elated_.

During the hugs and goodbyes, Lily told Ezra, "don't be such a stranger," and they promised to get together again soon. She told Aria again how pleased she was to meet her and to call if she needed anything. Then Lily noticed and complimented the ring on Aria's finger, telling her it was "very beautiful" when Aria explained it was a gift from Ezra. At the last minute, Aria remembered to reach into her bag and give Lily a copy of the sonogram. "She's much bigger now," Aria asserted, and Ezra promised to send a new one in a couple of weeks.

As Aria and Ezra exited the restaurant, Aria opened up the parasol to shield herself from the blazing sun. Coming from the other direction was a white-haired elderly lady wearing outdated track pants and carrying a blue vinyl umbrella for the same purpose. Aria and the kindred spirit exchanged a polite smile and nod, knowing they were smarter than most others on this blistering hot day.

Ezra pulled her to him by the arm over her shoulder, and told her, "She loves you already."

* * *

The Gerald thing, I added, but the rest of this scene was written beforehand.

I am personally glad that the mom in my story is not a world-class bitch like the mom on the show. I wouldn't have been able to write dialogue like that anyway, so cutting and evil while at the same time appearing civil. Ack, I'd have nightmares if I were Aria in that ep.

So does no one care that Ezra told his mom he's going to marry Aria? I thought people would be kinda surprised by that. Just another example of how I can never guess the reactions. Anyway, as you're reading, tell me what you like, because it makes me happy, and it keeps me motivated to keep writing.

Also, I'd like to apologize for the super slow pace of the story. Hope it's not too annoying. Best I can do at the moment.

Guest - Those are some of my faves too. Glad you liked it! Thank you.

Notinyourlifetimehoney - Yep LoL. Anthony Michael Hall. I couldn't resist. I should have named one of the kids JJ haha.  
Nope I'm not on Twitter. I try to stay away from spoilers and Twitter is _full_ of spoilers. What's your Twitter name though? I'll follow you if I ever get on there. :)

Maddie - Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. And I'm glad the name has grown on you. But uh oh, what if it's a boy? Teeheehee. Open to suggestions. :)


	110. Chapter 110

I've cast Anthony Michael Hall as Ted simply because I was a fan of The Dead Zone. Link in profile.

* * *

[Flashback Part 1]

Ezra pressed the buzzer marked "Kimball" on a New York apartment building on the Upper West Side. He nervously scraped his toe against the brick exterior, waiting for a response.

"Hello?" a woman's voice answered.

"It's me, mom. Can I come up?"

"Ezra!" It was very unlike her son to show up unannounced. Surprised and worried, she buzzed him in.

Ezra opened the heavy glass door and took the steps of the staircase to his right two at a time. The building was in a somewhat upscale area, not overlooking the Hudson or the park, but not a hole in the wall either. The apartments here were nice, larger than most shoebox apartments in the city, not something to be afforded on a teacher's salary alone. Lily's husband Ted ran a successful textile company and had lived here ever since his divorce.

When he got upstairs, he saw his mother had already cracked the door open, anticipating his arrival. She asked, "What are you doing here?" as she let him in, holding the small yapping dog back with her heel, and asked, "Is something wrong?" as they embraced. Lily wore a warm grey knee-length shirt dress with cap sleeves and sash belted in the middle, one of her standard work outfits.

"No. Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to see you," he assured her. They stood in the "foyer" area, if the 4-square-foot area containing a narrow desk with a tray to hold the mail and a bowl to catch the keys counted as a foyer. Essentially they stood in the kitchen. Synthesized sound effects of an action-adventure video game floated through the air from the living room to the left on top of the high-pitched barks of the little Westie terrier who was currently stepping on Ezra's feet. He must have been a mix with another small-breed dog because his coat wasn't entirely white, nor quite as fluffy as other Westies. Because of the dark spots sprinkled over his nose, the children had named him Pepper.

"You didn't tell me you were coming though. Are you sure everything is okay?" Lily tried to read his face while he looked over at the kids, Neal, sitting cross-legged on the carpeted floor in front of the TV, Anna, reclined in an armchair with her legs over the side, facing away from him, texting on her phone. Neither acknowledged his presence.

"Everything is great-"

"Hey, Ezra, what a nice surprise," a tall sandy-haired man in his early-40s said as he emerged from the bedroom down the short hallway.

"Hi, Ted," Ezra said and gripped his stepfather's hand in a firm handshake. "It's good to see you." Ezra hadn't spent a tremendous amount of time with the man, but harbored no negative feelings towards him, as was often the case with stepparents. Not so with Isaac, who was 16 when his mother remarried. Instead of moving to Manhattan with the newlyweds, he chose to live with his Aunt Shelley and Uncle Richard and finish high school in the town in which he grew up.

"What brings you here?" Ted asked.

Ezra bent down to pick up the dog who would not stop his yapping. Pepper licked Ezra's chin a few times reminding Ezra of the dog he grew up with, Gizmo, a Jack Russell. "I.. just wanted to talk to my mom about something."

Ted got the picture. His presence was not requested for this conversation. "Sure, sure," he said understandingly.

Ezra looked again at the kids playing video games in the living room. The idea he was going to be a father was still sinking in. This past week, he found himself staring at children at the grocery store and on line with their mothers at the coffee shop just trying to imagine what it was like to have a kid. He quickly rid himself of this habit once he got a few troubling looks and wished he were able to strike up a friendly conversation about being an expectant parent instead of looking like a creep.

Lily tried to guess what he wanted to talk about, but couldn't think of a reason he would just show up out of the blue instead of making a phone call. She couldn't help but think it was a bad news sort of visit, despite his protestations.

"Hey, why don't you guys go inside for a while. Do some homework," Ted suggested and Ezra set the little dog who had been squirming to be put down back on his feet.

"But we still have 15 minutes left!" Neal protested without taking his eyes off the game. Pepper's short legs carried him to the living room where he trotted circles around the 9-year-old boy.

Using her teacher voice, Lily said, "You can have 20 minutes later if you go do your homework now. Come on," she clapped her hands twice, "it's a school night."

"Fine…" Neal agreed, pausing the game and dropping the controller on the floor. Without the noises from the TV, the only sound was the dull whirr of the washing machine hidden in a closet down the hall. "Hi, Ezra," he said, having just noticed his presence.

"Hey.. buddy," Ezra said, somewhat awkwardly as he passed.

Anna, a pretty young girl with honey-colored hair and a pink cell phone in her hand, followed her brother and father inside without a word, but watched Ezra watching her.

"Do you want to sit down?" Lily offered. "Something to eat?"

He took a seat at the round kitchen table. "No, I'm fine. I came to ask you a favor."

"What is it?" Her best guess was that he was going to ask for money.

No, it was quite the opposite. Ezra reached into his pocket and on the glossy wood-grain surface placed a ring box, black leather with rounded edges. "I want you to hang onto this for me. For a while."

Lily's eyes grew wide. "Is this an engagement ring?" She didn't even know he was seeing anyone.

He nodded.

"Can I see?" she asked, already picking up the box.

Ezra gave her the go-ahead as Pepper came back to sniff around Ezra's feet.

"It's beautiful.." she said, admiring the detail. Inside the box, atop the white satin lining, sat a delicate antique gold ring. In the center was a brilliant round-cut champagne diamond, with scrollwork resembling butterflies on either side.

"I met someone," he began. "Someone special. She's the one. She's it for me." Truer words had never been spoken.

"Ezra, that's wonderful! But why are you giving this to me?" Lily had pulled the ring from the box and was now holding it up to the light overhead, dazzled by the sparkling facets.

"This is the girl I'm going to marry," Ezra said out loud for the first time, after thinking it continually for the past week. _If I say it out loud, it will come true. I am __going to__ marry her,_ he had been telling himself_._ "Someday," he added. "I'm not ready to propose yet. I don't want to rush things." Though starting a family with her before her 18th birthday would be the definition of rushing things to most people.

"Like you did with Jackie?" She remembered when her son had called to tell her he was engaged. It had come as a surprise; he hadn't discussed it with her first.

"Can I finish?"

She gave him a nod to continue.

"I found this ring, it's perfect." He had found the ring on the website Spencer recommended. It came as a set with the band he planned to give Aria the following day. He wasn't confident in his ability to choose something Aria would like, but when he'd spotted this ring amongst the many search results, he knew it had her name written all over it. And so even though he was not looking for an engagement ring, he purchased it anyway because he could use the matching band as a placeholder until the day he could slip the real thing onto her finger and because it was tangible proof that he would eventually fulfill that promise. "I don't want to hide it in the apartment in case she finds it-"

"Are you living together?" Lily asked, wondering how long they had been together without him ever mentioning it.

"No," he gave her a look of exasperation. "I don't want her to find it. And I don't trust Hardy not to lose it." _Or pawn it._ _Or trade it for weed._ "You're the only person I trust enough to hold onto it until the right time."

"Of course," she said, still admiring the ring, resisting the urge to slip it onto her own finger as was the usual impulse when in the vicinity of fine jewelry. "This is no ordinary engagement ring," she remarked. The ring he had given to Jackie was a generic white gold band with a round stone. Lily had gotten a look at it when she first met Jackie, an encounter she'd rather forget, not that it was a disaster, just not very smooth. Jackie didn't laugh at her jokes at the right time or find the way she bantered with her son to be cute. She had an air of entitlement about her and a fake-looking smile plastered on her face. Jackie didn't look at Ezra the way he looked at her. Lily could tell the girl's heart was not all in and knew she would end up hurting her son. It broke her own heart to see that Ezra was going to get his heart broken.

"Aria's no ordinary girl."

Everything about this situation was different. Lily knew Ezra meant every word he said. "Aria?" she repeated, hoping this girl with the lyrical name was more deserving of her son's affections than his last girlfriend. "Tell me about her. How did you meet?" Lily asked as she took the seat across from Ezra.

Ezra shifted uncomfortably. "We don't have to get into that now. I only came to give you the ring and let you know everything is okay. More than okay." And again, he had convinced himself that if he said it out loud, it would magically be true.

Lily wondered why he didn't want to talk about her, but didn't push the issue. She knew he'd tell her more when he was ready. "Can you at least stay for dinner?" The casserole in the oven would be ready any minute.

"No. I'm meeting Hardy," Ezra said as he started to stand up, "then I have to get back home. I didn't tell her I was making this trip. Obviously." And the longer he stayed, the more likely his mother would be to detect he wasn't telling her the whole truth.

Lily followed suit, having only been seated a few seconds. She picked up the small box and pushed the diamond ring back into the slot. As she snapped the lid shut, she said, "Well Ezra, dear, I will keep this ring safe for you until you are ready to propose. And I hope I get to meet her before that, whenever it is."

"You will. I promise," he said. While he hugged his mom tightly, he asked, "Do you believe in soul mates?"

She was surprised by the question. After a moment of thought, she replied, "Yes. I do." Now Lily _knew_ everything about this was different. He'd never used that word with her before.

"So do I."

Ezra wanted to tell his mom the rest. Maybe she'd have some words of wisdom to help him feel less overwhelmed. Or maybe she'd look at him with that 'I'm disappointed in you' look which could make him feel like he was 2 feet tall. _We've been seeing each other since last September and she's 16 years old and she was in my class and I know it was wrong, I know, but we're still together and now she's pregnant and I'm really scared. Happy too, but really scared I'm going to wind up losing her, if not to her parents keeping us apart, then to her slowly starting to hate me for ruining her life._ If he verbalized any of what he was thinking though, Lily's face would be full of dismay. Finally, he let her go, his eyes watering a bit. He had found his soulmate and would do everything he could to keep her.

"Thank you," he said, turning away. "Tell Ted and everyone I say goodbye."

"It was good seeing you, Ezra," she said to him, already halfway out the door. "Please come back soon. Bring your girlfriend!" Pepper barked his farewell.

Ezra smiled back at her. "Bye, mom."

* * *

Usually I don't like to break up flashbacks, but wanted to this time since these are two separate scenes.

Links to the ring and Lily's dress in my profile. This is the ring I've been envisioning the whole time, but it's even prettier in my head. I wished I could have posted this link way earlier, when he gives her the thinner band, but then it would have ruined the surprise that it was part of a set.

This chapter was written long before season 3 air, including the thing about the lyrical name. It was the first thing I thought when I started watching this show, that Aria was such a pretty name, and how funny it was her parents gave her this beautiful lyrical name and named her brother Mike, the most common name like ever. That's why I took from the book that his given name is Michelangelo because that's more on par with Aria (and hilarious to me).

In case it's not clear, this is the thing Ezra is keeping from Aria.

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Notinyourlifetimehoney - thanks for the suggestion. And thanks for the review!

guest - Thank you! I couldn't even come up with any other way for her to find out. This is one of the original scenes I had in my head before I wrote anything down, like Ella finding out outside that cafe. Of course I had to flesh it out quite a bit, but the gist was that the baby starts kicking and Aria freaks out. I really enjoyed writing these Lily chapters. Coming up with a character from scratch is fun! Getting to decide things about them, and their past. I like this Lily character so much, I wish she could be real on the show.

maddie - only time will tell! Thanks for your patience and encouragement.

If anyone wants to throw out some potential boy names, please do!


	111. Chapter 111

***Edited Friday, November 2, 2012 - Not sure who will actually see this, but I wanted to let you all know I live in an area affected by Hurricane Sandy and my power/internet has been out since Monday. I will update next chance I get, but I can't promise how soon.***

[Flashback Part 2]

Ezra caught the door of Hardy's apartment building as another tenant was exiting. He took the elevator up to the 8th floor and knocked on 809. A good 10 seconds later, Hardy pulled open the door, wearing comfortable clothes and looking confused. "Ezra? What are y-"

"She's pregnant." He got straight to the point of this visit, to tell him about the baby. He had to tell somebody.

"Wha-? Who?" Hardy was _not_ expecting to see Ezra. He thought it was going to be his upstairs neighbors coming to complain.

Ezra glared at his friend, waiting for him to catch up.

"Aria?" he said when it hit him. "Aria's pregnant?"

"No, your mom. Can I come in?" he said, walking right past Hardy into his apartment uninvited. It was actually Melanie's apartment, which Hardy had moved into last year, clearly evident by the lack of dirty socks on the floor and posters of busty blondes in bikinis on the walls, as their dorm room had looked. This place, on the other hand, was nicely furnished, tasteful art hung on the white walls, a modern area rug in muted colors lay in the middle of the room, and a long shelf full of records sat beneath the flat screen TV. The only light was coming from the range hood in the kitchen. Ezra didn't ask if Melanie was home, figuring not since she traveled so much.

Hardy lingered there for a second, looking positively stoic, then gave the door a push and turned to look at Ezra, who was pacing in the living room. _Not good. _The comment 'what did I tell you about orange jumpsuits' would probably earn him a good shove. He took a breath and said, "I thought you knew what you were doing."

"I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I don't have a fucking clue!" Ezra shouted, one hand gripping the back of his own head.

Just as Hardy had suspected. "Relax, Z, tell me what's going on. Does anyone else know?"

Ezra tried to dial it down, but if he couldn't lose his cool in front of his best friend, then what was the point of even coming? "No, no one knows, but yesterday we told her parents we've been seeing each other." The meeting had ended with him being kicked out of their home. Earlier today, Ezra texted Aria, '_Anything to report?_' She wrote back, '_No news is good news_.' Then in the afternoon Aria wrote, '_She knows you're not doing Spencer on the side ;)_' Ezra wrote back, '_Terrific_,' displeased the written word did not carry his intended tone of voice - confusion mixed with gratitude, relief, and a touch of sarcasm. He did not ask for clarification.

Hardy took a few steps forward until he was uncomfortably close, scrutinizing Ezra's face. "I don't detect any visible cuts or bruises.. you seem to be breathing alright.. Legs intact," he said and knocked his foot against the side of Ezra's shoe. "What aren't you telling me?"

His breath smelled like the cinnamon altoid in his mouth. Ezra backed away. "That we lied." He rested against the back of the tan microfiber sofa. "We said we've been dating for 2 months. I _swore_ nothing happened before that." _So when they find out, they'll hate me even more._

"Smart.." Hardy reckoned with his chin scrunched and eyebrows up.

"Not my idea," Ezra said, as if he regretted it.

Hardy's eyebrows inverted themselves. "Do you have a death wish?"

"No, nevermind," he sighed, "we're not telling. I'm sure I wouldn't be standing here if we had."

"_Pfft_ yeah, you'd be in handcuffs!"

"Not helping," Ezra stated. He didn't need to be reminded of the handcuffs in his future.

"It was a good call," Hardy affirmed. "I know you said they were like, these, crunchy granola.. _intellectuals_," he said this with an odd condescending tone of voice, and a flutter of his fingertips Ezra found very strange, "but-"

"What? I never said that," a baffled Ezra said, but Hardy hadn't stopped talking. "-I don't think any parent would be cool with you boning their daughter half the time she was in your class."

Ezra only caught the gist of that because he was talking over Hardy, "What is wrong with you?" He'd described Aria's parents as fairly liberal and informal. There had been no talk of granola, though Hardy's peculiar description of her family was surprisingly accurate. He narrowed his eyes at him.

Hardy tried to be serious. It was difficult because prior to Ezra's arrival he had been indulging in a sweet joint rolled from the weed he purchased from the coffee cart guy outside his office. Hardy put on his most un-stoned face and asked, "She wants it?"

Ezra was instantly distracted from trying to figure out what was wrong with Hardy. "She says she does. But part of me thinks she's just saying that and she's gonna wake up one of these days and realize how in over our heads we are."

"Do you want it?"

"More than anything in the world." Ezra looked up to see the stupid grin on Hardy's face. Maintaining an un-stoned demeanor was proving slightly troublesome. "It's selfish, I know."

Hardy held back the chuckle threatening to escape. He found Ezra's complete unbridled honesty a little bit funny. "Sure it's yours?"

"You jerk!" Ezra yelled and Hardy got that shove he'd been asking for. "Of course it's mine."

"I'm just playin'," Hardy snickered.

Ezra shook his head and walked around the end table to sit on the couch properly. Hardy followed suit and dropped down into the seat directly across. "Look, man, it's gonna be alright. Just.. relax."

There was that word again. Relax was not something Ezra had been able to do since last Saturday morning. "You're not taking this seriously," Ezra said and shook his head again at Hardy's annoyingly laid-back attitude. "She's pregnant. Somehow I was stupid enough to let that happen, and her parents are going to find out, and just because they believed us about not getting together 'til after, doesn't mean they won't find out we lied. And when they do... I'll be lucky if I'm able to see the baby when it's born. I'm sure they'll get some kind of restraining order, if I'm not behind bars. Know any good lawyers? Cuz I might need one."

Hardy had kept up with Ezra's rant. He could tell his friend needed to hear something other than what a friggin' buzzkill he was being. "Well, yeah," he said with an obvious tone considering he _did_ work at a law firm and Ezra knew that, "but we don't handle custody shit." Hardy was assistant to a big shot corporate lawyer who'd never take a case which didn't involve millions of dollars being on the line. He could tell his answer wasn't making Ezra feel any better and added, "..But if it comes to that, I'll find you someone good. I swear." There were plenty of other good lawyers at the firm.

Ezra flopped his head back against the back cushion. He hated thinking about this.

"Word of advice?" Hardy offered.

"It's why I'm here."

"Don't call her fat. Don't ever call her fat, or say anything that could be construed as calling her fat. Chicks don't like that. Pregnant chicks especially." He'd accidentally made an unfortunate comment about his girlfriend of two week's roommate sophomore year, having no clue the girl was pregnant. Boy, did he learn his lesson. Having one girl shrieking about what an asshole he was and another bawling about how the dress she was going to wear to spring formal wouldn't fit taught him to keep his mouth shut.

"You're a fucking jerk you know that? She's _preg-nant_. Preg. Nant. And I'm.." Ezra flopped his head back again, "an idiot." _An idiot for letting it happen, and an idiot for coming here._

"You _are_ an idiot," Hardy declared and finally burst out laughing.

If the coffee table hadn't been in the way, Ezra would have kicked Hardy. Ezra knew he could count on his best friend to tell him the truth, but the way he was choosing to do it was rather irritating. Something about the way Hardy was laughing started to seem very familiar. "...You're stoned!" Ezra realized. "You're fucking stoned." He may have noticed earlier had he not been so distracted by the trivial matter of his life threatening to fall apart.

Hardy hopped up from his chair. "Yes I am," he admitted, "and not nearly enough to handle this bullshit," and opened the bedroom door and disappeared into it. He came back with a partially-smoked joint in one hand and a lighter in the other. Hardy sat back down, brought both items to his lips and inhaled quickly as he flicked the flame on to get it relit.

Slightly annoyed, Ezra said, "I came here to talk to you.."

Hardy took a drag and said, "So talk," then held out the glowing stick across the gap.

"I don't know.." Ezra said, all the reasons he shouldn't flashing through his head, excuses really. "It's been a while.." Ezra remembered move-in day freshman year of college, the day he met his roommate and soon-to-be best friend. That very first night, Hardy got him high. His mother would have been so proud.

"So you'll get a good buzz," he said and held it out a little further. "I think if anyone needs this right now, it's you."

Ezra leaned forward to take it, a red ember floating down and vanishing before it hit the ground. As he took the first puff, bringing him back to all those nights in the dorm, getting stoned and playing Xbox, Hardy announced in his most mellow tone, "You're gonna be a father. Congrats, man."

* * *

[When I originally wrote this scene, it was like 4 sentences long and hardly included any dialogue. Then I realized that was a waste, so I fleshed it out into this, which is much better. I still like the lines I had written though, but wasn't able to work them into the scene because they were more of an overview. Anyway, this is what I had written: _Ezra went to Hardy's to tell him about the baby. He had to tell somebody. Hardy knew he was still seeing Aria, against his better judgment, knew he quit his job to be with her and that they'd overcome a few obstacles in their way, namely Jackie. Hardy listened to all of Ezra's fears, eventually declaring that he was nuts, but also offering Ezra his good wishes and support, whatever may happen._

I have to give credit to Rose from the PLL podcast Pretty Little Recaps for the "crunchy granola intellectuals" comment. I thought it was so funny when she said it and the perfect line for Hardy. If you like listening to funny people talk about Pretty Little Liars, then you should check it out on iTunes.]

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Lauren - Thank you very much for the kind words and the name suggestions!

Guest - hehe cute.

Guest 2 - Sorry for the long wait. I definitely set myself up for this by originally publishing every single day haha. I should have known I wouldn't have been able to keep that up. I'll be honest. I've got the next handful of chapters under my belt, but then the rest, it's all a very rough outline. Some parts are written (and need improvement) and some parts are not. If I publish the finished ones too quickly I'll run out of the little buffer I've got going, and I don't want to do that because your reviews are what keep me motivated. Knowing I'll get feedback every however many days keeps me on track. You'll be happy to know I was super motivated after the Halloween ep and wrote half a chapter in one shot. I hope I have more spurts of creativity like that!  
Anyway, thank you very much for reading/reviewing. I'm glad the last chapter cleared some things up, cuz that was the point.

* * *

About the Halloween ep... I don't even know what to say. It was nuts! I have... a lot of opinions about it, good and bad, but this isn't the place for it lol. It's so hard though cuz I want to talk about it but can't go on message boards without getting spoiled.


	112. Chapter 112

I do apologize very much for the long delay in posting. In case you didn't see the notices I posted, my power was knocked out by Hurricane Sandy and it took a long time to get back up and running. No power means no internet, so yeah, that sucked. Everything is pretty much back to normal now, thanks so much to everyone who sent their good wishes in the meantime.

There is new content posted in **Chapter 31**. It takes place the day after Ezra puts honey in Aria's tea and they both freak out, and a few days before the girls all eat lunch together at school. KatyForYou sort of enabled it, so you may thank her.

And since I probably won't update again until the weekend, **Happy Thanksgiving** to everyone who celebrates it. May you eat delicious things. :)

* * *

(Part 1 of 5)

Ella had Ezra over to the house again, for a game night this time. There was no awkwardness between them anymore and she had long since stopped questioning his every move and motive. They had become better friends over the past months than they ever were before; a shared love for an exceptional person will do that.

For dinner, Aria had the idea to make tacos and they all helped in the kitchen. Mike and Ezra joked around as they often did now, and Ezra finally gave Mike the high-five he'd been meaning to give him all year. Aria laughed, knowing the real reason had nothing to do with the joke Mike just told.

The four played Trivial Pursuit and the score of the game remained very close the whole time. They gathered round the coffee table in the living room, Mike and Ezra shared the sofa, while Aria sat in the big armchair and her mother took the smaller chair with the wooden arms. Aria's feet dangled over the edge and since her chair had been moved to be closer to the table, she was close enough to extend her legs and perch them on Ezra's knee, which made a convenient footrest. They exchanged a cute smile as Ella correctly answered the question Mike had just read her.

Spying Aria's feet out of the corner of his eye, Mike said, "We shoulda placed bets," to his mom.

"On what?" Aria asked, thinking he meant the outcome of the game, and adjusted the elastic fabric gathered around her chest. She wore a dark purple silk strapless coverup-style dress with large medallion print batiked across the front and back.

"On how long it'd take you to start working your way over here."

Aria sneered at him and deliberately adjusted herself forward to rest her feet higher above Ezra's knee. It was common knowledge that Aria could hardly be in the same room with Ezra without sooner or later sitting on his lap. How could she not though? He was kinda ripped now and his t-shirts always showed off the well-defined biceps and forearms she liked having wrapped around her. She was surprised girls didn't flock to him on the street. Of course, if they did, she'd be forced to twist their stupid skanky heads off because he belonged to her and her alone.

Like a tattle tale, Mike said, "They couldn't keep their hands off each other at the movies. I thought they were gonna get us kicked out."

So Mike _had_ seen them. The theatre evidently hadn't been quite as dark as they all had thought. Ella raised an eyebrow and tried to ignore the comment.

Ezra was embarrassed. He preferred Ella not have to think about where his hands had been. And what they've done to her daughter.

Aria was not embarrassed. "And where is _your_ girlfriend this evening?" she retorted, then pretended to look all around. "Oh, that's right, in your imagination."

Ezra tried to direct everyone's attention back to the game, for Mike's sake, even though the kid had just called him out on his inappropriate behavior. He knew it was more to get a rise out of his sister than anything to do with him. Ezra missed having this type of relationship with his own brother; they mostly communicated by email these days. "Your turn," he told Mike.

Mike picked up the dice and rolled a 3. "Blue," he said as Ezra drew a card from the deck.

"_Which Scandinavian country's longest and deepest fjord is the Sognafjorden?_" Ezra read off the card full of questions.

Aria thought she knew the answer, and Ella tried to think, but wasn't given the opportunity because right away Mike confidently answered, "Norway," as he picked up the little blue wedge and dropped it into his game piece. He'd just taken the lead.

"How do you even know that?" Aria asked, annoyed her little brother was beating her. "I thought you slept through geography."

Ezra wondered if Aria was gonna break out the smack talk if Mike widened the gap any further. Back in February he thought it was, he and Aria played a few rounds of Uno while they waited for the pizza guy to show up. Just as she had been about to declare 'Uno,' he put down a 'Draw 2' card and she muttered "_scumbag_" under her breath. Then he put down a 'Draw 4' card and Aria exclaimed, "_You bitch!_" Ezra replied, "_Is this what I have to look forward to for the rest of my life? You verbally abusing me during card games?_" Aria just smiled sweetly and continued on her way, eventually winning, and gloating.

"Not every day," Mike said. "Or ever," he amended when he caught Ella looking at him.

Byron came home at this moment. The smile on his face vanished when he saw Ezra sitting there so comfortably with his family in his living room. Not in the mood to deal with this right now, Byron quickly turned to leave and accidentally walked into a big cardboard box sitting open on the floor.

"Oh, sorry!" Ezra said jumping up, letting Aria's feet fall to the floor. "It's a body pillow," he explained, "my mom sent, for Aria to sleep with, it's more comfortable." _Poor choice of words._ Ezra picked up the box and held it between them. He hadn't been in the same room with Byron since the night Byron tried to strangle him in the middle of a semi-crowded restaurant upon learning of the impregnation of his 17-year old daughter. Prior to that, since he'd admitted to being in a relationship with Aria, Ezra had only conversed with Byron at department and faculty meetings on campus. And 'conversed' would be a stretch. They took care of the business at hand using as few words as possible, never mentioning Aria's name or acknowledging her existence at all. Ezra never pressed the issue, knowing he didn't have a leg to stand on in an argument with Byron Montgomery.

"Your mother's proud of you then?" Byron responded, glaring at Ezra.

Ezra's jaw moved, but he was speechless. Byron turned around and left the house, pulling the door shut loudly behind him.

Ezra stood there for a long second, then turned around and put the box down next to the stairs, then finally ventured a glance toward the others. Mike looked at the game board, visibly uncomfortable, Ella looked at Ezra apologetically, unsure what to say, and Aria studied his face, trying to predict his next move. "I should go," he said.

"No, you shouldn't," Ella disagreed. "We're still playing. Come sit down."

"He shouldn't have to walk in and find me in his home. It's not right, I shouldn't be here." Ezra was always afraid of this happening every time he came over, unless he knew Byron was out of town.

"This is my home too and I invited you. You have every right to be here," she insisted.

Ezra inched towards the living room saying, "Ella, you have been so great, having me over, and treating me like family when god knows I don't deserve it."

Mike said, "You are family," but his words were drowned out by Aria's shouting. "I swear to god, Ezra, if you start with this 'you don't deserve me' bullshit again."

Ella was taken aback seeing Aria react like this.

"Aria." Ezra was surprised too. "It's his house! He doesn't want to see my face at school, it's not fair to make him look at me sitting in his living room playing games with his family!" While Ezra was yelling and gesturing wildly, Aria had gotten to her feet. "I don't want to make him angrier than he already is!" So much for not losing his temper.

"How many times have we been over this? This is not your problem, it's his." Aria walked closer to Ezra who was still in the foyer. Her yellow flip flops made noise as she tread across the carpet. They didn't match her dress, but they were comfortable for a lazy night at home, and showed off her purple pedicure.

"And I'm making it worse by being here."

Aria shook her head. "What is this really about?"

"It's about me not wanting to shove our relationship in your father's face when he's clearly not comfortable with it! He shouldn't have to leave his own home-"

Ella wanted to jump in, but couldn't get a word in edgewise.

"No, it's not," Aria cut him off. "From the very beginning you've had this stupid idea in your head that you don't deserve me, that you don't deserve to be happy." Ezra looked at her sideways, trying to get her to realize she should watch what she says with her mom standing right there. Aria didn't care though. "And you were ashamed of us."

"Not of us, of myself, for allowing-" he cut himself off. They hadn't come this far only to out the true circumstances of their relationship during a stupid fight. Usually their stupid fights took place within the confines of his apartment, without an audience. Ezra pulled Aria into the dining room. "Aria, this isn't about us."

"The hell it isn't!" she shouted. "Are you ashamed of this?" She walked into him and forced his hand onto the underside of her rounded belly.

"_Never_. And you _know_ it," he spat.

"Then _what_ is your problem?" Her anger was evident by the way she enunciated each word and the deep line which had formed between her eyebrows.

"I'm looking at it from his perspective, which you seem unable to do." He leaned into Aria and lowered his voice so Mike and Ella, still in the living room, couldn't hear him say, "I not only fucked his 16-year-old daughter, but I got her pregnant," then pulled away and spoke normally, "I don't exactly deserve a seat at the dinner table."

"I can't believe you," Aria said, tore her wrist out of his hand, spun around and ran up the stairs.

* * *

[No link to Aria's dress. I made this one up in my head and couldn't find anything like it online for some reason.

One of my fave lines in the show is when Hanna is pissed at Mona and she's like I will _twist_ her head off. It's so.. descriptive. ]

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Thank you to Guest! I could't help smiling when I read your review. Thank you for the kind words, I'm so glad you are enjoying the story.

To Notinyourlifetimehoney - I know right. I need to rewatch it it was so nuts.

Thank you to other Guest! Sorry I can't help you out with the Halloween ep, I watched it live, but just google it and I bet you can find a link to it. Good luck. It was a very exciting episode.

Sarah2198 - Haha, mixed drinks in the middle of the day. I wouldn't put it past Hanna.. Thanks so much for your comments! Did you read the karaoke chapter where Ezra asks about A? The girls were pretty well caught off guard lol. I will take your suggestion under consideration. :)

Megann - Yep, I will definitely keep updating. Sorry again for the long wait! And thank you for reading and leaving a comment.

I will respond to my other reviewers next chance I get, but for now, I just want to say how much I truly appreciate getting your reviews and great it makes me feel to know that you guys care about this story. You all rule.


	113. Chapter 113

(Part 2 of 5)

Ezra shoved the chair he was standing next to into the table in frustration, and then heard the door slam upstairs.

"What did you say to her?" Ella asked with curiosity, not anger, as she walked over to Ezra, who had one hand on his hip and one pressed to his forehead, regretting everything that just happened.

"Something I shouldn't have said. I'm sorry," he shook his head. That scene was the height of disrespect, Ezra thought, being invited over just to engage in a shouting match with her daughter, on top of everything else.

"I've never seen you two have a fight," she remarked. "I've never seen you raise your voice at her. I was beginning to think you were too perfect." In all the time she'd known him, Ezra had always been polite, and helpful, and gracious, even when she gave him a hard time.

"I don't understand," he said, "you're happy I yelled at her?" and slumped down a bit, leaning against the back of the wooden chair, so he didn't tower over Ella while they talked.

"No, but you're only human. I was beginning to wonder..." She was attempting to keep things light, but he didn't follow her lead. He was too busy berating himself internally.

"I'm not perfect. Far from it." Loud music started playing upstairs which Ezra and Ella both took notice of. "I didn't mean to upset her, it just makes me so _angry,_" he said, squeezing his fists, "when she accuses me of not wanting this baby when she _knows_ I do. I was wrong to say what I did, but she promised not to overreact when I tell her what I'm thinking."

"She's pregnant," Ella reminded him. "Overreacting is normal." There were days when she didn't even want to see her husband's face because it irritated her so much, and then the next day, everything was just peachy. "If you guys have made it this far without this type of blowout, then consider yourself lucky."

"We haven't," Ezra informed her and loosely folded his arms. Neither of them noticed Mike go upstairs.

"Do you fight a lot?" As Ella had said, she had never seen them fight and had no idea if they ever did. Aria had never come to her for relationship advice or told her anything other than happy or funny stories about them being together.

The legs of the chair Ezra leaned on were slightly off-balance and it rocked a small amount every time he shifted his weight. "Not a lot, but it's not the first time she's accused me of that, or for thinking-, or for wondering-" He was trying to find the right words without referencing things that happened while they weren't supposed to have been together.

"Ezra, you may not want to hear this, but she's right. It seems like you're letting Byron's problem with this become your problem. Is it true you think you don't deserve her?"

Ezra briefly closed his eyes and admitted, "I've thought it, from time to time." _Don't ask me why. I might just tell you._

Ella was not surprised by his answer, having had picked up on inklings of this during the times they all spent together. The way he looked at Aria with such unquestionable love, and how he seemed to be in awe of her, particularly when he didn't know anyone was looking, always this layer of incredulity bubbling below the surface. "It's understandable to question the, I guess, morality of the circumstances under which you got together," Ella said, and Ezra's bold thoughts immediately turned to fear. _What is she saying? Does she know?_ "But you don't have to question your own integrity. _I_ don't." The emphasis she placed on 'I' implied that her opinion was the only one that mattered. "You've done right by her. And you're good for each other." Ella's sincerity was making him feel worse. "You weren't together very long before she got pregnant," she stated without any judgement behind it, "so you probably didn't have many fights before the added complications." And even worse. They'd had their share of fights. Ezra hated lying to Ella. The fact that she was comforting him right now was making him feel sick. "And hormones. You can't blame yourself for her being upset right now. Couples fight. It happens. Plus, don't forget she's 17. It'd be pretty unusual if she didn't stomp upstairs and blast her music every once in a while." Ella turned her head toward the stairwell momentarily. It reminded her of the time they had spent in Iceland, when she'd gotten used to the sound of music blasting at the highest volume from Aria's room. She could handle the loud angry music, and the dark depressing ballads, but when Aria would turn on a Björk record while she cleaned her room, Ella would find her headphones, not a fan of the quirky singer's music. Luckily Aria had picked something else just now.

"No, _that_ I know. She can do _whatever_ she wants. She's doing this- She's the one-" Ezra tried again. "She has given up so much for this, for me. I hate the thought that she doesn't just get to be a kid, I know I took that away from from her." Ella clasped her hands and listened. "At 17, my biggest responsibility was.. showing up to my job sitting at the front desk of a museum no one ever visited." It was extremely boring and basically an excuse to get paid to read. "No," he shook his head, "she gets _anything_ she wants."

Ella appreciated Ezra's desire to let Aria act her age, and recognition of her sacrifice, and willingness to do whatever it took to make her happy, but realized he was confused about something. "Do you think she's doing this for you?"

Ezra considered the question. "Yes. In a-" 'In a way,' he was going to say, but Ella only heard 'yes.'

"She's not. I know her and she would have kept the baby no matter what." Ella knew if Aria had gotten pregnant with a boy her own age, or someone who did not stick around, she still would have gone through with it. She was sure her daughter had made up her mind before even knowing for certain if she was pregnant yet, even though they had never discussed it explicitly. Ella wondered if Byron would have reacted differently in either of those situations. The answer was probably yes. He wouldn't have someone to blame the same way he could blame Ezra, being an adult, a trustworthy figure in Aria's life, and a supposed friend.

"I don't..." _I just don't know. _Ezra had heard Aria say she wanted the baby, multiple times, and even mention what her responsibilities would be if he "_weren't around_," implying Ella's impression was correct, but he did still believe on some level she was keeping the baby because he wanted her to, knowing him well enough to know the offer to start their family when they were both older had not been not heartfelt, and wanting to spare him the tremendous hurt had they'd chosen to end the pregnancy. He believed he influenced the decision much more than he should have, though she hadn't given him a choice. Because she loved him so much, Ezra believed she would do anything, including giving up the life she had planned, for him.

"I do. You know, you're more mixed up about this than I realized," Ella said, thinking out loud. "I'm not going to argue, that she has more to deal with now than the average teenager, but.. it's what she wants. You must know that."

Ezra gave her the slightest nod of acknowledgement. He had too many competing thoughts in his head to give her a real answer.

Ella rocked back on her heels, looking at the edge of the carpet beneath her feet, then told him the main thing she'd been meaning to say. "I heard what Byron said. You can't let it get to you."

"How can I not?" he responded. "The man doesn't feel welcome in his own home. He can't stand the sight of me, understandably so. I've come between his relationship with Aria, and since you've taken our side, I've come between the two of you as well, and, I feel awful about it." Ezra had been wanting to tell Ella that for a while, but knew simply bringing up Byron's name would create an uncomfortable atmosphere.

"I appreciate that," she said, "but you haven't done anything. He's having a hard time with this, but we're working on it. We've been going to marriage counseling and-"

"That's my point exactly," Ezra gestured toward Ella with one hand, not letting her finish the sentence. "Because you're disagreeing over me and my role here, your marriage, of what, nearly 20 years is in jeopardy. It's not right."

"Our marriage was in jeopardy long before you entered the picture. It's not exactly a secret, I assume Aria told you." Ella knew she herself had told Ezra about the separation, but had never given him the details.

Ezra remembered the first time Aria let him in on the problems in her parents' marriage and how it only served to bring them closer. His fear the problem ran deeper was what made him realize he loved her. And his willingness to put Byron _in the ground_, having never met the man and only imagining his crimes against that perfect girl whom he did indeed _love_, had scared him greatly. "She did, but you guys seemed to be doing fine up until the moment we told you about us." They were hosting dinner parties and attending faculty events at the college together. Byron had dropped by Ezra's office sometime in March and actually used the words "_life is good_." Mike was getting the help he needed, Aria was happy, doing well in school and _not_ in trouble with the cops, and he was back together with his wife. It was the last conversation the two men had had before the growing friendship went to hell.

Ella wondered how many gory details Aria had shared. Probably all of them, she figured. "Things are not always what they seem. We would have wound up in counseling sooner or later." They had their fair share of issues besides Ezra. Marriage is complicated. It was the reason she didn't want Aria and Ezra jumping in too fast. "..Can we take a step back for a second? You are blaming yourself for things that are not your fault." Ella took a step forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Ezra, listen to me. You are part of this family now, and you're welcome in this house. When Byron learns to accept it is yet to be seen, but it's not something you should concern yourself with."

'I don't deserve your kindness' seemed to be the wrong thing to say, so he kept silent, offering her a forced smile instead. "Can I go up there? I don't want her to be angry with me."

She returned the smile. "Of course. You don't have to ask."

Ella watched him walk away, wondering if anything she had just said had gotten through. Ezra stopped at the bottom of the stairs and pulled the giant oddly-shaped pillow out of the shipping box, leaving the plastic sleeve behind. On the way up, he passed Mike descending, who stated, "You can thank me later."

* * *

Thanks to Guest.

Thanks to Maddie, your post means a lot! I try so hard to make each scene, especially the dialogue, seem realistic, and it means so much to hear you say that it seemed real. :D

Thanks to Esme. Missed you guys too. :)

Sarah2198, haha, it is awesome that you are reminding me of parts of my own story. I love that it made an impression. Thanks!

Notinyourlifetimehoney, exactly right. I'm trying to explore the whole family dynamic, but it is so true that nothing else _really_ matters except their own opinions.  
Breaking Dawn was really good... I'm a little sad it's all over. They did a great job with the last film.


	114. Chapter 114

(Part 3 of 5)

Aria slammed her bedroom door and marched straight over to her open laptop, purposely losing her flip flops along the way. She woke the machine up with a swipe of her fingertips and hit the play button in iTunes, which was already open. The first 7 songs were unceremoniously skipped for being too slow, too peppy, or too sappy; she wanted something angry, preferably something with screaming by 30 Seconds to Mars, or something with heavy drums and guitars by Linkin Park. The eighth song the shuffle feature produced was exactly what she was looking for - "Seventy Times 7" by Brand New. She paced, trying to forget about Ezra and her father and concentrated on the lyrics, wondering what must have transpired between the person who wrote the song and the person he wrote it about, surely something intense to be wishing death on his supposed best friend.

Mike let himself into the room and closed the door behind him. "Could you turn that down?"

"No," she refused, citing, "this is a great song," as Mike walked past her. "What are you doing in here?" she demanded as he hit the volume down button on the keyboard 3 times, a lot gentler than she had when she turned it up. Aria glared at him, but didn't do anything about it.

"That was possibly the stupidest fight I've ever witnessed," Mike said, and he'd seen kids at school throw punches over stolen french fries in the lunch room. "You're mad at him because he cares what dad thinks?"

"He cares _too_ much. And he lets it get to him, every time dad says or does something." Aria knew it got to Ezra when Byron called him worthless at the restaurant. And she knew it upset him when he realized Byron didn't want him spending time with Mike, though he'd never said a word.

"And you'd rather he be all cocky and rude about it? Like 'yeah, I knocked up your teenage daughter, what're you gonna do about it?'" he said, pretending to be posturing for a fight.

"No, but-" Aria couldn't finish the sentence because knew her brother was right. She tugged on the ring hanging from the bronzy chain around her neck. It hadn't been fitting her finger lately, so she strung it on an 18" length of figure-8-shaped links she had dug out of her mother's jewelry box, since her own didn't contain anything so simple. "It's not just that, he's always done this. Second guesses everything."

"So you would rather he never question the choice to get with involved with a student?" Mike asked her. "If he didn't have second thoughts, how would you know he wouldn't do it again with someone else?"

Aria noticed the distinct lack of the word 'former' in Mike's sentence. "You don't know what you're talking about," she said dismissively and spun around so her back was to him.

"Don't I?"

"No, and if you think this is helping, you'd be wrong," she muttered while straightening up a stack of books on the edge of her desk.

"I'm not gonna say anything," Mike said.

Aria quit pretending anything actually needed straightening and turned around. "There's nothing to say, whatever you're thinking is _wrong_," she said with a steely gaze.

Mike was not scared. "I'm not stupid. I remember how you reacted when Noel was gonna turn you guys in. And I know you'd never cheat with your best friend's boyfriend. You hate cheaters." Mike knew this for a fact.

She didn't respond to the first half of his statement, hoping he'd drop it, but did ask, "Who told you that?" Aria never told her brother about the "relationship" with Caleb.

He answered, "I heard mom say it once while she was fighting with dad."

"When?"

"The day after you dragged me to Ezra's for dinner, and mom gave you her blessing, or whatever."

"Yeah, right, 'her blessing,'" Aria rolled her eyes. "What did they say?"

Mike explained everything he'd overheard. "Dad started questioning if Ezra made you lie and say it started after he resigned. She said there's no way and she knows because you admitted to dating Hanna's boyfriend behind her back and why would you do that if it wasn't true. He said maybe Ezra had you brainwashed, but mom said she knows you and you wouldn't lie about something like that. He was really angry at her for giving you permission to keep seeing him." Aria hadn't been home the day this conversation took place.

_She thinks she knows me so well. _Yet she failed to detect the massive secret Aria kept from her for over a year, and all the others she was currently keeping. "Brainwashed? Seriously?"

"That's what he said.. But come on, Caleb? I know you wouldn't do that and then I remembered that weird dinner when you, like, ran away," Mike scurried his fingers through the air, "when I mentioned Noel telling the principal about Fitz and a student." At the time, Mike had no idea Aria was that student. "And you stayed out all night..." He only remembered because later that evening he had gone looking for his sister to tell her that a movie she liked was coming on TV and Byron told him she was sleeping over Spencer's. For some reason it stuck in his mind and he was able to make the connection.

Aria didn't say anything. She knew she was caught.

"I've seen you lie to them without blinking, without even any good reason. Of course you'd lie about that. It makes perfect sense, and explains a lot."

Aria hit the volume up button 5 times, which was pointless because it was already on full blast when Mike had lowered it. "You can't say a word," she pointed a finger at him. "The future of my relationship is at stake here."

Mike brushed that finger away with the back of his wrist. "Chill out, I'm not saying anything. '_The future of my relationship_,'" he mimicked condescendingly. "You're being a little dramatic."

"I'm growing a person," she mumbled. "I'm allowed."

"Whatever," Mike said and weighed his options. Should he tell her what was on his mind? He didn't see the harm, and if she knew, then she'd owe him one.

Aria rested a hand on top of the person she was growing, the person who had started kicking when she started blasting the music, and apologized for the rude awakening telepathically.

"..Guess what else I knew before you told me," Mike said with a slight smirk, eyes on her midsection.

Aria followed his eyeline and creased her eyebrows. "You did not," she said, believing him to be lying. There was no way.

"I did too," he said superiorly as if he were dangling this bit of information in front of her like a string in front of a cat.

"I don't believe you. How could you know? When?" Aria always worried Mike would find out first and she'd have to pay him hush money to keep quiet, or move up the timetable for telling her parents, but it never happened.

"We share a bathroom, remember? There are only two reasons girls throw up every day, and it was almost always first thing in the morning, when you couldn't have eaten anything first." When he first noticed, he decided to keep an eye on the situation, in case he was going to have to stage an intervention, but then he started to catch on. The night her crying woke him up, he thought something was seriously wrong, and almost went in there to check on her, but then heard her on the phone sobbing,_ "Noo, Ezra, you can't. You can't come here. ..Noo..."_ and he knew she wouldn't want him to. And the next day, when she lied to him about it, all he could do was give her the hug she asked for. _"Are you okay?"_ he had asked, seriously worried. By this time, Aria knew she was freaking out over nothing and told him everything was fine, and he sort of believed her. She had no idea he knew, or at least had a pretty good idea of what was really going on. "And you were already wearing that ring that night," Mike added, referring again to night he officially met Ezra. He'd noticed it mysteriously go missing from her finger after Ella had arrived, just another piece of the puzzle which helped him figure things out.

Aria couldn't believe it. Her brother was way more perceptive than she ever gave him credit for. "How long did you know?"

"A while."

"You never said anything.." she said, and put some pieces together in her head. At one point towards the end of the school year, Mike randomly offered to take over trash duty on the nights it was supposed to be her job, saying he preferred it over washing dishes. Aria hadn't thought too hard about it at the time, just grateful to not to have to drag the heavy bins to the curb anymore.

"You clearly didn't want to talk about it yet." Keeping secrets was the name of the game in their family, so he kept his mouth shut. Mike knew it would all blow up eventually, and when it did, he could claim ignorance.

Aria thought back to when she told him about the baby. _"Are you happy? To be pregnant?"_ was all he said. He wasn't shocked, he didn't ask how long, he just sat there with his arm around her while their father went ballistic downstairs. After a few minutes, he said, _"Maybe it's better you don't listen."_ Aria just shook her head; she wasn't moving. _"It'll be okay,"_ Mike had said, and then went to bed. So Mike was telling the truth. She didn't know if she wanted to smack him, or hug him.

"A thank you would be nice.." he suggested.

"Thank you.." she said, tentatively, then, a bit suspiciously asked, "Why would you do that?" Keeping a secret for no personal gain, it was unlike him. "Not only that, all of it. Why are you doing this?"

He understood she meant 'why are you keeping quiet about Fitz?' "What difference does it make now?" he said. "If I ever thought he was making you do anything you didn't wanna do, I'd've kicked his ass." Mike wouldn't hesitate to bring the hurt on any guy who messed with his sister.

"Yeah, you would have, wouldn't you?" Aria laughed. It wouldn't have been the first time.

"So why are you mad at him then?"

She had forgotten. "Cuz he's a jerk," she said stubbornly.

"A jerk who does everything he can to be respectful to dad even though dad treats him like dirt. And a jerk who practically worships the ground you walk on and says he doesn't deserve you. Most girls would take that as a compliment."

Most girls _would_ take that as a compliment, Aria thought. But when Ezra said it, she didn't understand how he could believe it to be true, as if he loved her more than she loved him, which was absolutely not the case. And the words made her feel like he was on the verge of leaving because he somehow didn't deserve to have her. But he _did_ have her, completely. Aria recognized this to be an irrational reaction. Ezra wasn't going anywhere and she knew it. Now, with Mike putting the phrase in a different context, Aria didn't know why it bothered her so much anymore.

At that moment, the angry vocals of the previous song were replaced by the light plucking of guitar strings. Tears rose to her eyes.

"Now what's wrong?" her brother asked.

"Nothing. Leave me alone," she blubbered and wiped a tear away with the palm of her hand.

He didn't get it. "This baby is making you nuts, more nuts than you already were."

"Get out!" she shouted, her voice faltering when the words stuck in her throat, pointing angrily at the door.

Mike knew better than to stick around. He twisted the doorknob and left the door open behind him after he left.

Aria dropped onto the seat in front of her desk and covered her face with her hands. The tears kept flowing as she listened to the lyrics.

_Happiness was just outside my window / I thought it'd crash blowing eighty miles an hour / But happiness is a little more like knocking / On your door, you just let it in_

* * *

[Link to the song Seventy Times 7 by Brand New and link to the necklace chain in my profile. ]

To anonymous, I'm sorry the story is not moving along at the pace you would like. I had infinitely more time on my hands when I first began it and now I have virtually none. And to be honest I haven't been feeling very inspired or creative enough lately to just sit down and write. I will try harder, but the pace from now on will just be slow, there's nothing I can do about it. Sorry. I do hope you'll stick around/return to the story again after a while. Thanks for writing.

Notinyourlifetimehoney, yep. It's all gotta play out though. I'm really glad you're so into the story!  
Did you not read the books before seeing the movies? I definitely recommend them, unless I misunderstood. Books are always better, but they did a good job with that series, and did better as it went along.

maddie, thank you! I really appreciate all your encouragement.

Thanks to Guest.

Thanks to Esme! I'm glad you understand how they all feel.

To Guest, if you're only on chapter 13, there's a lot to come, and the other girls definitely play a big part, but so do her family. Just keep reading! :)


	115. Chapter 115

(Part 4 of 5)

Ezra stood in the doorway holding the giant pillow and felt worse than ever for making her cry. He tossed the down-filled bundle onto the bed and Aria looked up at him with tears in her eyes. He knelt down in front of her and reached over to press the mute button on the keyboard. "We should only have happy memories of this song," he stated.

Aria choked back a sob. The ottoman Aria sat upon was low enough to the ground that she nearly saw eye to eye with Ezra, kneeling before her.

He wrapped an arm around her back and said, "I'm sorry." With his other hand he wiped away a tear forging a new path down her reddened cheek. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have spoken to you like that." Then he placed that hand behind her back as well.

"I'm not mad at you," she sighed. "Mike put a few things in perspective for me.."

_I'll have to thank him for that later._

"I don't care what you said, just why you said it. When we're alone, I know you don't question us, but as soon as my dad says something… you start apologizing like you did something wrong and you shouldn't be here and I hate it," she sniffed, unable to easily stop crying once she got started. "I hate that he can make you feel like you're a bad person, or that this," her hands rested atop her rounded stomach, "is shameful and wrong."

"I don't feel that way, but I do see where he's coming from. He's your father."

"Yeah, he's my father who thinks his 'little girl' is a 'little whore' who went and got herself pregnant at 16 with a guy-"

Ezra didn't let her finish the sentence. He went straight into protective mode, demanding, "Did he say that to you? ?" tensing up, watching her face for the answer whether her words told the truth or not. Ezra may have wanted to keep the peace in the Montgomery household, but if that's the way Byron was treating his own daughter while he wasn't around, he would be putting a stop to it pronto, even if it meant taking Aria and the contents of her closet home with him tonight, for good.

"No, he hardly says anything to me." Another salty tear trickled down her face. Ezra relaxed his muscles, not that he liked this scenario any better. "Sometimes we'll start talking about something mundane, like school or something, and then I'll mention the baby, or he'll look down and see her and remember. He looks at me with disgust. And I know that's what he's thinking." Aria hadn't mentioned her thoughts on the subject to Ezra before, and wouldn't go into detail when her friends would ask what was wrong. She cried herself to sleep the night she noticed the sonogram photo had been moved from the front of the fridge to a less visible position on the side. The action, as insignificant as it was, would only have been perpetrated by one person in her household and it spoke volumes. She took the photo down completely and pinned it to the bulletin board above her desk on top of the one that was already there.

Ezra's eyes fluttered shut for a moment and he took a breath before stating, "I promise you, you are wrong. All of his anger and disgust is directed at me. I can guess pretty well what he's thinking, and it's nothing to do with thinking you're a _whore,_" he could barely manage to say the word. "_I can't even believe you think that_," Ezra added as if he were talking to himself. He shook away the thought and looked Aria in the eye and calmly explained, "He is sad that you won't get to live the life he envisioned for you. And he hates _me_ for taking that life away from you. Do you understand?" Her bottom lip trembled and her eyes remained focused on nothing. Ezra wasn't sure he was getting through. "..He loves you."

"I'm not so sure anymore…"

"No," he said calmly, "listen to me. He loves you, even if he's not able to say it." Ezra wrapped his arms more tightly around Aria and rested his head on her chest. In one long breath, he quietly exhaled these words, "I am so sorry you feel like your father doesn't love you anymore." The idea was impossible to even imagine. Everyone who knew her had to love her. There was nothing not to love. A few more moments passed while he listened to her heart beating in a regular rhythm. It occurred to Ezra that this fight may have had nothing to do with him at all. Everything she said seemed to apply to herself. 'He can make you feel like a bad person, or that this, is shameful and wrong.' Ezra wished he had known she was feeling this way. He never wanted that. "..Have you told Ella how you feel?" He pulled back enough to look at her again.

No, she hadn't. "She sees it the same as I do, there's no need to talk about it."

"You're wrong. And if you don't believe _me_, then talk to _her_ about it." Ezra tucked some strands of hair behind her ear, then broke eye contact and looked down and to the side. He was wondering how he could have been so blind to her feelings. They had talked about her father a few times over the past month. She would say things were chilly, but fine. She always had hope things would change soon and never seemed to dwell on it. Ezra had thought she understood Byron's actions the same way he did.

Aria wondered how Ezra could possibly defend her father to her mere minutes after he said something so utterly crappy to him. Then she saw his expression and said, "And now you're thinking this is your fault. I can see it on your face."

He was. He knew his presence in the equation was what was causing the problem. "Am I not allowed to feel a little responsible for changing your life in such a drastic way?"

"Not when you've changed it for the better," she stated without pause. At least he hadn't said 'ruined.'

This brought a small smile to his face.

"This is _my_ life, _our_ life, and _I_ choose it. You believe me right? I have zero regrets."

"Can I ask you something?"

Dodging a question with another question, she noted, and nodded.

"What would you have done if I was a loser who left you months ago, high and dry?" The discussion downstairs led Ezra to want to know once and for all.

With a slightly distressed look, she said, "Why would you ask me that?"

"I just wanna know."

Aria gave it some thought, not because she needed to consider the answer, only to consider how to phrase it. "You'd never have done that, but hypothetically, if you did.." She took a breath. "Even if I hated you, I still would have loved you once, that wouldn't have changed. And I could never have brought myself to not have this baby. She's a part of you. Of us."

Ezra considered her answer. "So nothing I could have said or done would have changed your mind."

"No.. does that bother you?" She had told him his opinion mattered, and it did, but only because she had needed to know where they stood. If he'd said he wasn't ready for a baby, she'd have had to leave him, too devastating a situation to even think about.

"No, not at all." That was the way he wanted it. Ezra felt the slightest bit better that he hadn't actually had any influence on her decision. She'd be in the same place whether he was seeing her through it or not.

"Would you answer the question then? You believe me that I have zero regrets?"

"Yes, I believe you."

"And can you say the same?"

He gave it the same amount of thought that she had given his question. Ezra could honestly say he had no regrets, even about the things that caused him the most inner turmoil to think about, because it all led them to this place where he got to be with Aria and this baby, who meant the world to him. "I only regret not seeing how hard this has been on you until now. Not making it crystal clear that his attitude is not about you. I've been willing to put up with it, but you've made me realize _I'm_ not the one putting up with it. If you want me to say something, I will." What could he say? 'Stop treating your daughter like a pariah in her own home'? Ezra's words would mean nothing to the man who hated him. Give him a free pass to take a swing at him? He knew Byron would like nothing more. What would it solve though?

"No, don't," Aria shook her head. "There's nothing you could say that would help." She appreciated the offer though. Aria knew if she asked him to, Ezra would have it out with her father, but she couldn't see it doing any good.

"Okay. Whatever you want," Ezra said and hugged her again, then let his ear drift down to her belly. He felt a tiny kick against his cheek and smiled broadly as a reflex. He couldn't have suppressed the expression if he tried. "Could you tell _your_ daughter it's not nice to kick her father in the head?"

Aria grinned and said, "Tell her yourself."

Ezra pressed his lips there and stated, "It's not nice to kick your father in the head."

Maeby kept kicking. Since she had first started kicking, Aria noticed she moved around the most at night and also at certain times during the day. Aria had thrown off the emerging routine this evening by waking her up early with the loud music and indiscriminate pacing.

Aria scratched Ezra head and messed up his hair. "She knows you don't really want her to stop."

"You're right," he told their rather active baby. "I don't really want you to stop." His words were muffled in the silky fabric of Aria's dress as he whispered, "I love you so much. So much." He was talking to the baby, but meant both of them of course. Ezra turned his head again, and said, "I could do this forever," feeling the tiny nudges against his ear now. What Aria had said earlier was true. When they were alone, nothing else existed.

"Yeah, yeah," Aria rolled her eyes. "Except she's not only kicking you, she's also using my bladder as a punching bag." And she could only ignore it for so long.

Ezra smiled for a second, picturing the baby wearing little red boxing gloves, taking swings at a speed bag at the gym. He sighed and stood up, then offered her his hand, which Aria took and used to pull herself to her feet. After she left, Ezra looked around the room. He'd never really gotten a good look at it before, having been too busy defending himself about Jackie and being afraid of getting caught there the first time, and having been too distracted by her swimsuit dilemma the second time to see anything beyond the eye-pleasing curves of her body.

He checked out the books by her bedside, noting Winesburg, Ohio with a cracked spine and dog-eared pages just like his copy at home. There were photos in the frames on the tall dresser, some of Aria with her girlfriends, one of Aria and Holden at age 10 or 11 he'd have to guess, grinning side by side on the edge of a swimming pool. On top of this frame rested a stuffed pig, the famous Pigtunia she had told him all about ages ago. As his eyes wandered, he noticed butterflies seemed to be a theme, and Paris, and throw pillows, a great variety of them, some silk with embroidery and sequins, some ornate floral prints, some whimsical-looking ones with polka dots and stripes, and one made of multicolored knitted squares pieced together. He guessed she had made it herself.

His eyes skimmed the various do-dads and knick-knacks covering the surfaces. He spotted a ceramic piggy bank next to black and white makeup bag and a mass of girly lotions and potions. He picked up a wrought iron sculpture of a girl, perhaps she was supposed to be a ballerina, he couldn't tell. His finger skimmed a rough edge. She seemed to be broken, missing part of her leg. He didn't know it was a piece of Alison's memorial, he wasn't there for the dedication, or that each of the girls had kept a piece which Emily had retrieved from the wreckage. Ezra put it down where he found it.

Behind the Russian nesting dolls on the desk was an easel holding a small painted canvas of a blonde girl in profile with a flower in her hair. He imagined the girl was Alison. Ezra thought Aria should paint more since she had a talent for it.

He took a gander at the photos and papers pinned to the bulletin board above the desk. There were two sonogram pictures stuck to the lower left-hand corner. Ezra had put his copy into a pewter frame he had picked up in a small shop in Killarney, Ireland, and kept it by his bedside. A doodle of a mountain range she'd drawn with neon highlighters on a post-it was pinned on top of a photo. He flipped the yellow paper up and saw a picture of Aria at age 8, approximately, hugging her dad's shoulders from behind in front of some tropical plant-life. Aria was smiling from ear to ear. She must have worshipped her father back then, before he had an affair and used her to cover it up, shattering her trust and perception she belonged to a perfect family. Ezra still didn't know how she'd gotten past that, but she had. They'd been well on their way to repairing the relationship when he came along. Ezra hoped he hadn't damaged it forever.

He sat down in front of the laptop to wait for Aria, and the words moving across the top of the screen caught his attention. He laughed to himself and unmuted it. Then he got back up and sat on the bed, picking up the big pillow he had tossed there earlier.

* * *

Picture of Pigtunia and the painting of Alison in my profile.

Guest and Sarah2198 - Thank you. :) I love it too.

Notinyourlifetimehoney - I know what you mean! _Usually _I read the books first, then see the movie, not always. I do find that I'm more critical of the film when I know the story beforehand, and it's been such a long time since I've read Twilight that I really enjoyed the last film, possibly because I wasn't obsessing about comparing it to the book. It wasn't fresh in my mind like when I saw the others. I saw the first Twilight movie before reading any of the books, which helped me be able to picture the characters and understand it a little better, but the books are even better than the movies so when you find time, I recommend reading them. :)


	116. Chapter 116

(Part 5 of 5)

When Aria walked back in, she laughed at the sight of him curled up on the bed with the big white pillow squished between his legs and under his head. _Goofball,_ she thought, but before she could comment, she heard the song playing and exclaimed, "What are you listening to!"

"The question should be, what are _you_ listening to?" Ezra said as he sat up, glad it was Aria who walked in, not anyone else. "It was already playing."

"Hanna must have downloaded it," Aria deflected coolly, checking out her fingernails.

"You are such a liar!" he exclaimed, shoving the pillow aside. "Just admit it! You listen to Justin Bieber."

"_You_ listen to Miley Cyrus," she retorted as she moved closer.

"I knew you would throw that in my face. But at least I've got the guts to admit it."

"Fine," Aria grumbled. "I've got _one,"_ she held up a finger, "Justin Bieber song in my iTunes. Hanna made me sit through that movie, and this song is actually kinda good. I admit it."

"Caleb would be so disappointed in you," Ezra hung his head, shaking it in shame. The boy who listened to The Black Keys and The White Stripes probably had a hard enough time getting his girlfriend to listen to decent music, and now Aria was getting sucked in too.. he might have his work cut out for him.

Aria stepped forward and intertwined her fingers in each of his hands. "Who's gonna tell him?" she said, pushing him backward and climbing on top of him. Her necklace swung languidly over his chest.

"Oh I'm definitely gonna tell him. He has the right to know his songwriting partner is a closet Bieber fiend. Or, what's it called?" Ezra tried to remember the name for fans of the young pop-star. "You've got _Bieber fever._"

"I'll show you Bieber fever…" she muttered flippantly and parted his lips with her tongue, still holding his hands, pushing them above his head without resistance. The comeback didn't even make sense. She didn't care.

The controversial song ended and "Parachute" by Train started playing, at a normal level. "This is a much more respectable song to make out to," Ezra smiled underneath her.

"You shush. You're ruining the mood," she said and pressed her lips to his neck, kissing that spot and lightly sucking on it.

She moved his hands back and forth above his head and worked on the patch of skin just under his jawline for about 5 seconds before Ezra said, "I hope every fight we ever have ends this way."

"Mmm," she acknowledged the sentiment and swirled her tongue. Her dress was on the short side, and the hem began inching its way up her back, so anyone who happened to come upstairs would probably get an eyeful.

A few more seconds passed. Maeby kicked and kicked and Aria ignored it. If she told him, he'd surely want to stop to feel.

To the untrained eye, Aria had him pinned down, but Ezra knew better. "Do you know how easy it would be for me to flip you over right now?"

She always knew. "I dare you," she whispered.

Ezra rolled his eyes. "Of course you do." He wasn't actually planning to.

Aria continued sucking on and nipping at Ezra's neck, and he let her. For a little while anyway. "I should get one of those pillows," he mused. "It was very comfortable." The comment was made partially to distract her and partially because it was true. Everyone should have a giant pillow to hug when they go to sleep, Ezra thought, though he'd much prefer holding her as he drifted off.

"I'm not wearing a bra..." was her response. And she did not quit her shenanigans.

"So I've noticed.." he said, then a moment later added, "..I'm not wearing a bra either."

Aria rose up enough to look at him. Hovering an inch above his nose she squinted, "You are determined to kill this moment, aren't you?"

"Sorry, I'll shut up." His constant interruptions were intentional though. He didn't want her to leave a hickey, at least not in such a visible location.

"Nevermind," she said, pushing herself off, then seating herself beside him. "Your stubble is irritating my face anyway."

"I'll make it up to you tomorrow," he said, sitting upright on the edge of the bed. Tomorrow, when they were under his roof, not her mother's, she could leave all the hickeys she wanted. And he'd probably leave some of his own. In more covert regions of course, it was summer after all.

"Tonight, I guess I'll have to settle for this pillow," Aria said, pulling it onto her lap and hugging it. "If I paste your photo up here," she pointed, "and put one of your shirts on it," one that smelled like his aftershave, "it'll be like sleeping with the real thing."

"I sure hope not!" Ezra exclaimed, and nudged her with his hip.

Aria grinned. "A _very poor _substitute for the real thing," she amended.

"Better." He would not be upstaged by a squiggly sack of fluff.

Aria put the pillow down and got to her feet. The dress fell back down around her hips, covering her behind, which had been exposed while she was kneeling over Ezra. "We should get back downstairs and finish the game, if mom hasn't packed it up already," she said, picking up a tube of lip balm from the desk. She applied it while she slipped her feet into the flip flops she'd kicked off earlier.

Ezra got up too. "I feel like I should make a joke about you being barefoot and pregnant, but I can't think of one."

She shut her laptop, ending the song mid-second chorus, and grabbed his hand. "Come on."

.

They walked down the stairs hand-in-hand and parted ways at the bottom. Aria joined her mom in the kitchen while Ezra turned left to find Mike sprawled out on the sofa with the TV remote in his hand.

"You're staying?" Mike asked, sitting up to make space, lowering the program about shark attacks he had landed on while waiting to see if game night was on or off.

"I'll stay to finish the game if that's what Aria wants," Ezra said as he took the seat to the boy's left.

"You're so whipped."

Scratching his neck, Ezra laughed. He didn't care, even if it was true. "What did you say to her, upstairs?" he asked.

"Nothing much," Mike said, putting his feet up on the coffee table. "Besides she was crazy, and stupid for freaking out over nothing."

"And that helped?" Seemed counter-intuitive.

Mike shrugged.

Ezra adjusted his elbow on the arm of the couch and thought about the whole thing. Some outstanding issues between them had been resolved, but Ezra couldn't be sure another fight just like it wasn't right around the corner. "No, what'd you really say? So I can keep it mind, for next time."

The younger boy considered telling him, but said, "Nah, it's better you don't know."

Ezra didn't know what Mike could have said to Aria that he couldn't say to him, but figured it was some sort of sibling thing. "Well, thanks."

"Anytime."

.

"Did you two make up?" Ella asked Aria when she entered the kitchen.

"Yeah," she answered, brushing past her mother, going straight for the fridge.

"Why were you upset?" she asked, knowing there may not be an actual answer to this question.

Aria pulled out a pitcher of filtered water. "He has all this guilt about being with me, and getting me pregnant." She poured the water into the tumbler she'd left on the counter earlier. "And it only comes out when there's someone around to judge us. And it bugs the crap out of me."

Ella appreciated a healthy level of guilt in Ezra. He did walk into their lives and turn them all upside down. "Why does it bother you so much?" her mother asked. "So what if he's a little conflicted? He loves you."

"Yeah," Aria took a sip, leaving a translucent lip print on the rim, "that's what Mike said." The water was cool and refreshing and Maeby thought so too. The mother-to-be started feeling some quick spasms as she downed half the contents of the glass.

"He did?" Ella asked, surprised. She hadn't realized Mike had even gone upstairs and didn't know her son to be the advice-giving type.

"He used some different words..." Aria put the glass down. "I get it, I'm not mad at him anymore. Now I'm just mad at dad. Why can't he just be happy for us?" They hadn't talked much about Byron's attitude. Ella didn't know how much it really upset Aria, and couldn't when she masked her pain behind such a trivial tone of voice.

"I don't know, sweetie. He's having a hard time. But please don't let it stress you out," she requested. "It's not good for the baby."

Aria knew that, which was why she tried not to let herself think about it much. "Speaking of which, she's kicking me over and over, right here, you see?" Aria placed her hands below her navel, framing the area she felt moving. Ella's face softened into a half-smile, and she bent down to get a closer look. "She's found herself a rhythm," Aria said. "Every 2 seconds."

Ella placed her hand there, feeling the successive little twitches. "She's not kicking," she reported, "it's hiccups."

"Oh really?" Aria asked with a huge smile on her face. She'd read about babies having hiccups in utero, but didn't realize that was what she was feeling. It did feel different than kicks though now that she thought about it.

"Mm-hm," Ella confirmed. "You had them all the time. All day, every day." Slight exaggeration, but she did believe she experienced the sensation more often than not, once she was far enough along to feel it. "She's teaching herself how to breathe. It strengthens their lungs." Ella's pet theory was that the frequency of the phenomenon had something to do with Aria having such a strong singing voice, even as a young child.

A content expression came over Aria's face. She was always so happy to learn something or feel something new, she couldn't imagine how thrilled she would be every time the baby herself did something new, like laughed, or sat up without help. She thought about these future milestones all the way back into the living room.

Ezra and Mike seemed very comfortable, watching the TV, Mike with his feet up and arms folded, Ezra with one ankle crossed over his knee. He was considering writing a shark attack into a story he had been working on, to add drama. Or maybe he'd shelve that one again and start something new since it didn't seem to be going anywhere. "You didn't pack up the game?" Aria asked, seeing it open on the coffee table, just as she'd left it.

"No, but you can if you want. I technically won," Mike said cockily.

"Not a chance," Aria shot back, retaking her seat, and picked up the dice.

* * *

[Notice how I didn't include the name of the Justin Bieber song they play - cuz I don't know any! haha. No offense intended. ]

maddie - thank you again for your review. I love that you've given it enough thought to make suggestions like that. I wish I could tell you what's in store for them, but I don't want to give anything away. In any case, thanks. :)

Notinyourlifetimehoney - Thanks! I'll probably read the books again someday. I just realized the latest PLL book just came out and I totally forgot! I have to read that ASAP.

Guest - Aww, that's actually a huge compliment that you were reading my story in class haha, and that you teared up. I'm glad that sweet moment came off as it was intended. Thank you so much for the review.

I'd just like you all to know there's no question of *if* I will finish this story, only when. I haven't had much time to write, so publishing will be slow. Hang in there though, I _will_ see this story through to the end.


	117. Chapter 117

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

This chapter's a bit of a monster. Please let me know what you think of it, because I worked _really_ hard on it. I basically built this whole thing around these flashbacks, and this is a major one.

* * *

[Flashback]

Aria agonized over the decision for days. Did she trust Ezra? She thought she had, but wasn't sure anymore. Last night, she waited hours at his apartment for him to come home, until she finally had enough. If she wasn't important enough to leave his stupid meeting early for, then he didn't deserve her. She left a note perched in the output of his paperweight typewriter - 'Sorry we couldn't make this work,' and hardly slept all night.

Once Aria made a decision, she stuck to it, as best she could. She sat in class the next day and tried to pretend he didn't mean anything to her, even when he made that speech, speaking directly to her, and not any other student like they all thought. She wouldn't know it, but it took everything Ezra had to make that speech, to make one last appeal before walking away for good. He wouldn't call her or text her or try to make her do anything she didn't want to do. He had tried to get through to her multiple times already. If breaking up was what she wanted, he wouldn't try to talk her out of it anymore.

Aria left the room, knowing she wouldn't be able to hold it together if she stayed, and she forced him out of her mind all day until was able to sit and think without distractions. Why was she doing this? Why end things before they'd even really started? They'd never know what it's like to be in a normal relationship if she didn't give them the chance to try.

Aria had been chosen to select the going-away gift for Mr. Fitz. She picked a book she knew he would love, a first edition of To Kill A Mockingbird, and she wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of locating one if he didn't mean mean anything to her. She thought of how it felt to see his ex on her doorstep and how familiar a scenario it was. But he explained her presence at the mixer. He explained everything. Why did she have so much trouble believing him? What had he even done that was so wrong? _He risked everything for you. He resigned from his job!_

She played his words over and over in her head. 'You must give up the life you had planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.' He didn't mean her. _He_ was part of the life she had planned. Ever since they decided to move forward together, her future had included him. Those words were referring to himself. He had never planned to meet her, to fall in love with her, or need her the way he found he did. _She_ was in the life he had waiting.

Why would she give all that up? Give up on all the dreams she had for them? Despite all the outside forces which could ruin their relationship at any moment, she still saw them being together in the future. The prospect was frightening, but also exhilarating. How many people can say they met their soulmate at 16? _You're making a mistake. Don't let him go. _

Finally the rational voice won out. Aria ran from her seat in the now empty cafeteria to the classroom she had sat in for months pretending not to love him. And he wasn't there. Disappointment set in, then, as if a sign from the universe, the clouds parted and the sun revealed itself, just for them. She spotted him outside through the window and _ran_ to catch him. If she didn't make it, she told herself she'd run all the way to his place on foot. There was no way she was letting him go. Never again.

Aria found her way to the nearest exit, out into the brisk fresh air, and could hardly believe it was winter. She called out his name before she ran into his arms. Their lips and bodies crashed together as he lifted her up into perhaps their most passionate kiss. Why was she ever willing to give this up? The singular way she felt when his lips touched hers, nothing could ever compare.

Finally he put her down. With one last nibble on his bottom lip, she tore herself away. "We should get out of here," she said, scanning their surroundings. "Someone might see us."

Ezra nodded and looked around. The parking lot was still empty. He captured her lips in his once more, an intoxicating feeling. He had thought it was over. He thought it was actually over, once and for all, and he was devastated. And now, he could be considered the happiest man alive. As well as the stupidest for continuing to make out with his girlfriend in the parking lot of the school in broad daylight. _You have her. Now go._

He finally let her go, grabbing her hand and leading her to the passenger door of the silver Toyota. He opened it for her, let her get inside, then forced himself to push it shut, obscuring her beautiful smiling face with the reflection of clouds in the window. Ezra jogged to the driver's side, practically skipping, and slid into the seat. Only 5 minutes ago he had thought he'd never taste her soft lips, never touch her smooth flawless skin, never see that brilliant smile again. _Pearl joy packed._ He couldn't help himself and leaned over to kiss her once again. Each kiss from now on was precious.

"I could-" she started, her words muffled inside his mouth, "do this-" he licked her tongue, "forever-" another kiss, "but-" and another, "we should," she sucked in some air, "really get going." Ezra planted one last kiss on her lips, then released her. Aria took in and let out a joyful breath and sat back in her seat.

They buckled their seat belts and he put the car into gear. Ezra kept looking over at her during the crawl through the parking lot, just to make sure she really was there. Aria smiled back at him each time, and placed a hand on his knee as further proof.

"Where are we going?" he asked, despite the fact he was the one in control of the vehicle.

"Anywhere. Just drive."

'Anywhere' sounded good to him. Ezra's foot pressed a little harder on the gas as they turned onto the street. He drove west because that was the direction the car was facing, and the fastest route out of Rosewood. No destination in mind, he did as she had said, and just drove. "What made you change your mind?"

Aria was waiting for the question. If he hadn't spoken up soon, she would have asked it for him. "I realized letting you go, letting _this_ go, would be the worst mistake of my life. I'm sorry it took so long."

He was incredibly happy to hear her say that. "Obviously I'm glad you did change your mind, but, I feel like we have a lot to talk about and get out in the open. We can't move on from this if we don't talk about what caused it in the first place." And he didn't want to wait another minute, because he was so ready to move on. At this very moment, he had everything he had wanted for months, a job which could not prevent them from being together, and most importantly, he had her.

"Okay," Aria said, already in complete agreement. "I'm going to tell you some stuff I never told you before which might help explain why I reacted the way I did."

"Okay."

"You know I had been with two guys before you, right?" And by 'been with,' she meant 'slept with.'

He nodded, preferring not to think about it. As relieved as he had been to find out she wasn't a virgin when they'd met, part of him now wished he could have been her first. First, and last, and only.

Sensing it wasn't his favorite topic, she asked, "Do you not want to talk about this?"

His answer fell somewhere in between 'yes' and 'no.' "You brought it up for a reason."

"I did, but if you'd rather not hear it, I'll stop." She could give him the abridged version instead.

"I do," he said, and braced himself.

"Okay. The second one was name-"

"Hal," he interrupted. "I remember."

Aria asked, "Why do you remember that?"

"I remember most things you say. And I sure as hell remember all the names of your exes, in case any of them happen to show up unannounced."

"Speaking of which," she got sidetracked by his comment, "Freddie might come for a visit. Probably not until next year though." Aria tried to keep up with emailing back and forth with Freddie, who at times had seemed like her only friend in Iceland. He was the only one she bothered to keep in touch with.

"Awesome," Ezra said facetiously.

"Freddie's not the one you have to worry about," she said with a slightly scornful tone. _Hal's the bastard._

Ezra misinterpreted. "But I should worry about Hal?"

"No, I didn't mean it like that," Aria explained, "..Freddie's gay."

As they passed the sign which meant they were officially outside Rosewood, Ezra stated, "You may have left out that minor detail last time we talked about this."

"I didn't know then," she said. "He told me in an email a few weeks ago. I was kinda relieved. Explains why the sex was so bad," she joked, but was serious. They had attempted it exactly 3 times before deciding to just stay friends. Aria would be the first to admit she had terrible gaydar. Atrocious really. The girls had a math teacher in 9th grade who was openly gay, but Aria somehow didn't know, so when someone made a reference to his boyfriend, she was surprised. Ali had laughed at her, saying, "_Mr. Murphy is gayer than the night is long,_" then added, "_right Em?_" It was digs like that, remembered in hindsight, which made Aria despise Ali.

There was no humor to be found behind the laugh Ezra forced.

"We're being candid here, right?"

"Yes." More candid than he cared for. "Please continue."

"Hal seemed like a great guy, at first. We had way more chemistry than I had with Freddie, for obvious reasons, and even though we didn't have much in common, I liked him. A lot." Ezra wished he could fast-forward through the part where she talked about liking other guys, but he listened patiently. "We dated for about three weeks. And for those entire 3 weeks, he was seeing someone behind my back. It made every conversation, every kiss, every moment we spent together a lie." To be honest, there wasn't all that much conversation. They'd gotten down to the screwing straightaway upon meeting at a wild party. He was tall and athletic and Aria was so small, he would throw her around in bed, which she liked, but he wasn't exactly a sensitive lover.. Aria realized she was getting sidetracked again. She took a breath, about to reveal what she'd never really told anyone before, at least not in such detail. "I was destroyed when I found out, and wondered how I could be so stupid and not see what was right in front of my face." She had been naive to think he hadn't simply been using her for sex. "I realized he was using my ..vulnerability at that time to, for lack of a better term, get in my pants, and I felt _disgusting_," Aria actually shook her hands out in front of her as she said this, as if she were shaking off cooties, "especially after seeing the girl he cheated on me with, she looked like a friggin' supermodel." The tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, thin yet curvy _bitch_, Kristjana, whose name even sounded like a supermodel's, was everything Aria was not. "Actually," she added, determined to be truthful even if it was an insignificant detail, "he was cheating on her with me, and that somehow made it worse." The way she found out about Hallbjorn's two-timing was uncomfortably reminiscent of how she met Jackie. Aria was at a party at Hallbjorn's house and opened the door to find the two making out on the front stoop. Not quite the same, but close enough in her mind to send her right back to that place where the guy she really liked, or loved, was lying to her.

Ezra found himself accelerating a lot more than he should have been when he realized it was his turn to talk. He eased off the gas. "First, you're not stupid. And second, is it possible to hate someone you never met? I'd like to strangle that guy for making you feel that way, or least kick his ass a few times." _And third, _you_ look like a supermodel_, he thought, but didn't say because he thought it might sound disingenuous.

The image of Ezra kicking Hallbjorn's ass amused her. Ezra was no slouch, in a pretty boy, could've been a male model in another life sort of way, but, in all honesty, he'd lose any scuffle with the 6' 2" athlete with a swimmer's body; the guy was practically an Olympian. "Mike beat you to it. He got all his hockey friends to jump him after school one day and kick the crap out of him. Not gonna lie, I enjoyed hearing all about it that night."

Ezra enjoyed the image even though he had no idea what Hallbjorn looked like. It was a good thing too, or he'd surely develop an inferiority complex. "Remind me to give Mike a high-five one day."

She laughed. "The point of this story is to illustrate what I think of most boys. Every "relationship" after that never went very far and ended poorly. The next guy cheated on me because I wouldn't put out." _Lars_. _Ugh_. "I meant it when I said you were the only guy who had never lied to me. It was probably my fault for picking them, but still. I stopped trusting basically everybody after that. I hated the world for what happened to Alison, my dad for what he was making me do, and myself for being such an idiot and letting people walk all over me." Aria was being more honest than _ever_ before. Her friends didn't know about half the stuff that went on in Iceland.

"You're not an idiot."

"Thanks." It was the compulsory response when someone pays you a compliment; it didn't mean she didn't still believe she was an idiot back then.

"And I've never seen you let anyone walk all over you, or tell you what to do."

_You never met Alison._ "Cuz I grew a backbone. After everything that happened that year, I came home, and I wanted a fresh start. And I met _you_, and _you_ were different." Aria could tell right away. Maybe it was because he wasn't a teenager, and she was so done with boys. "But when I found out about Jackie, I could see it all happening again."

"It's not the same," he assured her. "At all. Can I please reiterate to you that Jackie is in the past? I never think about her, I never expected to see her again, and any feelings I had for her are long gone. I would never lie to you. And in no universe would I ever cheat on you." _Not with Jackie, not with anyone, but definitely not with Jackie. No contest._

"I can see that now," Aria said. "I just needed a little perspective."

"Are you sure? Because the past few days have been hell," not knowing where they stood. "When I found your note…" _It felt like being stabbed in the chest._ He had had to sit, and stared noncomprehendingly at the words for what felt like a _very_ long time, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong. There were too many missteps to count during that sleepless night. "If you hadn't changed your mind, I don't, I honestly don't know what I would have done, how I would ever get over you. Do you _really_ trust me?"

"I _really_ do," she promised. "I trust you more than I trust anyone else, and truthfully, it scares me a little bit. Sometimes I have trouble understanding what we are, because I've never been in such a serious relationship before, and the Jackie thing spooked me."

Ezra looked back and forth between Aria and the road as he tried to articulate how much he didn't want that. "If I've ever made you feel… If you ever thought we were moving too fast or if you wanted to slow things down, I wouldn't-"

"No, that's not it." She was the one who had insisted they move at the speed they had been moving at. "I'll tell you what I determined during the hours I spent thinking about this. My reasons were _threefold_," she added in a joking tone. "First, the trust issues, we talked about that. Second, how I was scared. Being with you has always felt so _right_, so _completely right_. Does that not scare you sometimes?"

"Of _course_ it does," he replied as if he were very relieved to finally get that off his chest, but also with an edge of apology, "but if you were feeling scared, why wouldn't you just tell me?" It wasn't really a fair question though. He'd been scared of this from the beginning and never let her in on it.

"I wasn't. Not until I thought I had a reason not to trust you, and then I started talking myself out of this. I was taking the easy way out. And it was wrong." She thought of what she'd put him through the past few days, and was truly sorry for it.

So from the beginning, she really was more sure of this relationship than he ever was, Ezra thought. She never told herself it was wrong or destined to fail. Ezra always knew this, but just realized it all over again. There was silence while they were both lost inside their own brains. Not complete silence. The wind pounding at the surface of the moving vehicle was remarkably loud. "And third?" he asked eventually.

That's right, she had said 'threefold. "Third, I was trying to protect you."

"Protect me from what?"

_The wrath of A._ "You could still get in a lot of trouble for being with me. We were taking such a risk. Part of the talking myself out of it included talking myself into believing you'd be better off without me."

_Sometimes I wonder the same thing._ "Look, I know there are aspects of this relationship which are not ideal. The fact that we can never go anywhere or tell anyone, it makes things harder. But don't think for _one second_ I think it's not worth it. _This_ has always been worth the risk. You don't have to protect me from my own decisions." He wanted to take her hand. He wanted to pull over and have a real face-to-face conversation, but he took what he could get.

"I know," Aria said. "I realized how stupid I was being. None of my reasons make any sense anymore." _A aside._ "Plus," she continued, "your words in class really got to me. I want you to know, I'm all-in if you are."

"You know I am." Ezra had been all-in since the moment she took him back just over 2 months ago. There were moments of uncertainty and times he wondered how they could ever make it work. He regretted not telling her that his last serious relationship ended with his fiancée calling off their engagement, but when they had had that ex-lovers conversation, he didn't want to make the age gap between them seem ever more apparent than it already was. He knew _she_ wasn't hiding any ex-fiancés in her past. He also regretted not keeping better tabs on Jackie. If he'd only known she hadn't moved away, as he'd assumed, this whole thing could have been avoided.

"Good. Now can we pull over so I can fuck you clear into the next century?"

Ezra yelled, "Jesus Christ, Aria!" but she kept on talking. "I won't lie and say the phenomenal sex didn't factor in to my decision," she added, half-joking. "Just so you know, I'm very willing to be punished for being irrational and impatient and generally dumb the past few days."

Very calmly, and through gritted teeth, Ezra muttered, "Aria... when you say stuff like that, while I'm driving, I'm likely to swerve into oncoming traffic and kill us both," adding, "Just so you know," using the exact nonchalant tone of voice she had just used.

"Come on. Pull over.. It's getting dark." She dragged a finger along his hand and wrist, which was gripping the steering wheel tight. Now that they'd gotten all the relationship stuff out of the way, she was ready to move on to the make-up sex.

He looked over at her for the briefest second.

"We haven't gone this long since the Dark Days of Abstinence," she said, thinking 2 whole weeks was far too long. Aria had come up with this title for the sexless time period they spent getting to know each other better towards the beginning of the school year. It was a joke and they both knew it because neither one would have traded those months for anything, ups and downs included.

Ezra shook his head and exultantly exhaled, "God I missed you."

Aria smiled, "I missed you too."

"But I'm not pulling over," he said firmly.

Aria scowled, "Why not?"

"We can't just _do_ that." Though they'd done it before, it wasn't going to become a thing that they _did_. "I'll look for a motel. Okay? Think you can make it?"

"_I_ can, can _you_?" She placed a hand on his thigh.

Focusing on the road, he said, "I'm keeping my eyes open. We're bound to pass one eventually." Ezra didn't recognize exactly where they were, but the straight narrow 2-lane roadway seemed like the type travelers took to avoid main highways, and seemed likely to possess a motel eventually, despite the fact they were currently surrounded by trees and not much else.

Aria considered letting her hand wander upwards, but knew he might literally crash the vehicle and then they'd have to explain why she was miles from home in her English teacher's car. She decided to be patient and ask him something she just thought of. "Are you happy, now that you're not my teacher. Do you.., feel better about us now?"

"I won't lie. It feels like now, we're a legitimate couple. And there's not the same cloud hanging over our heads."

Aria figured he would say that. It didn't bother her, except she had always considered them a legitimate couple.

After a few seconds, Ezra said, "Hopefully things will get a little easier now. You can come visit me at Hollis without worrying who sees us talking."

"That will be nice," Aria said, looking forward to it. "Do you think you'll like working there?" She sure hoped so. If he hated it, she would blame herself for being the driving force behind him needing to take the job in the first place.

"I do," Ezra replied. "They already showed me my office, it's incredible. And I think I'll get the hang of teaching a college course pretty easily since I TAed a few courses, and was pretty involved in the lesson planning of one last year, and led a lot of discussions."

"Did you and Jackie TA the same class?" Aria asked, remembering Ezra had said Jackie had been a TA.

"No, she had a different major." They had only had one class together, Intro to Sociology, which basically everyone was required to take.

"What if you run into her? Will it be weird?" The campus was fairly small, and they'd already run into each other once at her parents' mixer. Aria almost wished she had stuck around to see what happened after she left. Did they talk? She wouldn't ask him though. He had the right to talk to an ex without being interrogated about it.

Ezra had in fact talked to Jackie. For the few minutes after her arrival, they had caught up on the basics, where've you been, how's life, etcetera. Then Ezra pulled another professor into the conversation, someone he'd only just met, and when Jackie was sufficiently distracted, he slipped upstairs, ready to whip out the 'I got lost looking for the bathroom' excuse should he have been caught. Afterwards, he let the most verbose and prosaic woman, a relic from the archaeology department, talk his ear off, nodding along mindlessly, thinking only about Aria, counting the minutes until he'd spent an adequate amount of time at the party to not feel rude when he left. "I'm telling you the truth when I say it won't be weird for me to see her on campus. Because I don't have feelings for her anymore. It is _not_ an issue. You don't have to worry."

"I'm not worried." Aria didn't love the idea, but she trusted him.

"How _are_ you doing though?" Ezra inquired. "This week must have been rough. Do you want to talk about it?"

_No._ "I'm a little sick of talking about it. No one believes us."

"I believe you," he told her again, in case she hadn't been listening the first time. "I mean it. Why would you lie?"

"I wouldn't," she said. "Obviously I'm capable of lying about certain things, such as us," _More than capable. I'm lying to you right now and you __don't even know it, _"but I wouldn't lie about this. We wouldn't just make up this whole story to get attention, or whatever it is people think."

"I know you wouldn't."

"Thanks. That's something at least."

Ezra knew this was probably the best opportunity to get her to open up. "So what happened? The details in the paper are sort of sketchy."

Aria sighed. "If you're reading the paper then you've got the wrong idea about everything."

"Then let me hear it from you." When she didn't respond, he added, "But we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine." She wasn't reluctant to talk to him, she just needed a moment to formulate what to say and decide which details to leave out. "After I left the party, I met up with my friends," _to try to trap a killer in the woods._ "Spencer was supposed to join us, but she never showed. It turned out she had been in a car accident."

Ezra shifted his eyes sideways. "Was she hurt? I didn't know about that."

"No, it wasn't bad, she wasn't hurt. They never even admitted her to the hospital. Her sister was admitted though, so they could monitor the baby."

"Oh," Ezra said. He felt bad.

"They're both fine," Aria added. "Spencer went to the church to pick up her sister's phone and that's when he attacked her. Spencer's not dumb though. She dialed Hanna on her cell and we heard the whole thing, his whole confession and his plan for how he planned to kill Spencer. He was _going_ to _kill_ her. We heard her begging for her life. And there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it."

There were no words he could say to erase that from her mind, much as he wished there were. "Did you call 911?"

"Yeah. A lot of good that did us." They took their sweet-ass time showing up. "When we finally got there, Spencer was at the top of the belltower clinging to the railing, in shock. Ian had fallen. We thought he was dead. We saw his body." The girls never mentioned to the cops, or to anyone, that Ian had been pushed. They could hardly believe it themselves, so they knew the cops wouldn't buy it if Spencer said a random passerby happened to push Ian to his death then disappeared without a word.

"But he's not." The statement almost sounded like a question.

"No, he's not." Of this Aria was certain. _He could have killed me last night if he'd wanted to._

"And that's why everyone thinks you lied." Another question masquerading as a statement.

"Yes."

"Is Spencer okay?" Ezra asked. "She seemed fine in class, you all did, but... that's a pretty traumatic thing to go through." He couldn't even imagine.

_We're used to it._ "She was really shaken up at first. But she's better now." Spencer had hardly slept that night. Aria knew because she was right there with her, and felt her tossing and turning into the wee hours.

"I'm sure she'll feel even better when they catch him. You all will."

_If they catch him. If he doesn't kill us all first._ Aria didn't actually know if that's what Ian had planned. She knew he had been in contact with Melissa and thought they might try to run away together, if Melissa was stupid enough to go for it. But Aria basically watched him murder her friend on that video, heard him attempt to murder her other friend on that call, and could have been killed herself last night had he perhaps been in a different mood. It was hard to guess his next move.

"She'll get justice," he said while Aria was lost in thought. She nodded her head, but didn't look at him. Aria knew the 'she' he referred to was Alison. She didn't talk to Ezra much about Alison. One time, when he asked why, she said it was because he didn't know her so he wouldn't understand. And she herself had conflicting emotions about Alison, her best friend at times, and at others, her worst enemy. He told her he'd be there if she ever did want to talk about it, and she knew he meant it, but hadn't taken him up on it.

"Are you sure you're okay? You know I'm here..." _And not going anywhere, no __matter what._

"Yeah I know." Aria smiled genuinely at him and squeezed his knee. At this moment, she was very okay, because he was by her side. Whatever awaited her back in the land of reality was not something she cared to think about at the moment.

He would never force her to talk about something she didn't want to. Ezra changed the subject. "So what else is new? I feel like I haven't talked to you in forever even though it hasn't been that long." Aria had been cold and standoffish during their last few encounters, and ignored his texts asking her to call him and asking if she was alright. It really hurt to be shut out like that, especially for reasons he didn't fully understand at the time.

Aria thought about the things she had wanted to tell him about this week until she had remembered she was upset with him. They usually touched base every day, even if they didn't have plans to see each other outside school. There was a lot of day-to-day stuff she hadn't yet told him. "My mom moved back home."

"What was that?" Ezra asked. He hadn't heard what she said because he was concentrating on the road, keeping an eye on the black SUV behind them making some dodgy moves.

"My mom moved back home," she repeated as the impatient driver sped past him on the left, venturing into the wrong lane just to pass Ezra's car, doing the speed limit.

"Oh, I thought she had already," Ezra said. She hosted the party last week.

"Well officially."

"That's really good." Ezra knew her family was one of the most important things in Aria's life and was truly happy for her that her parents seemed to have worked things out, unlike his own.

"Yeah, I'm happy about it. I told her to just make up her damn mind already, and she decided to come back." Ezra wondered what his mom would say if he spoke to her that way while Aria thought about how she was happy to have her mom at home again, but wasn't too thrilled with her at the moment. "...I'm banned from seeing my friends."

"You are? Why?"

"It was the therapist's brilliant idea."

"Therapist?" he asked. One week apart and he'd missed so much.

"Yeah," Aria said, "our parents have us seeing a therapist, you know, cuz we're crazy attention-seeking liars."

"Nobody thinks that."

"Yeah, whatever.." _Yes they do._ "We went as a group at first, now individually," she explained.

"How is that going?" He sounded disinterested because he was watching the headlights of another car getting too close for comfort in the rear view mirror.

"Well. It's not like I don't have plenty to talk about.. I haven't mentioned you specifically, in case you're wondering."

"I wasn't." He wasn't. "And I wouldn't ask you what you talk about with your therapist." Luckily, the tailgating car made a turn at the light and Ezra didn't have to worry about being pressured into speeding anymore.

"That's sweet, but unnecessary. There's not much I'd tell her I wouldn't tell you." _And there's a lot I wouldn't tell either of you._

Ezra smiled to himself, glad they had gotten back to this place so easily. "Why doesn't she want you to see your friends? If anything, you need each other more right now." Ezra knew what a tight-knit group Aria belonged to. They'd been through a lot together.

Just like that, things between them were normal again. It was as if they'd never broken up. She felt comfortable telling him everything, or, almost everything. "I really couldn't say, but we're not actually doing it. We still talk between classes and whenever we get a chance." Who else could she tell this to? He didn't even blink hearing she was defying her parents' and therapist's orders. Aria realized how much she had really missed talking to him. "I don't see how it's healthy to separate a close group of friends, trying to isolate us, especially Spencer. Her parents don't even want her seeing her boyfriend. I just don't see how it's helpful."

Neither did he, but he tried to understand why the therapist would impose this ban. "Could it have something to do with the thing with Jenna?" he suggested. "Does she know about that?"

"No, and I'd rather you not bring that up," Aria said tersely.

"Sorry, I just thought since it's a secret the 4 of you share, it might have something to do with it."

"No that's not it." It kind of was it. He kind of just hit the nail on the head. The secret they shared was a lot bigger than the Jenna thing though. Aria tried to put it out of her mind, and for a brief moment, did. She reminded herself to be happy, sitting next to this person she shared so much with and saw a future with. For a minute, he was all she thought about, being caught up in his loving embrace, locking eyes and seeing into each others' souls. It had never been that way with anyone else. Only him.

Her last words hadn't been said harshly, but matter-of-factly. Ezra didn't think she was upset with him for bringing up the touchy subject, but did wish he knew what she was thinking about. Out of the blue, she asked, "Could I have a key? To your apartment? So I don't always have to take it from under the mat?" She would try to figure out a way to get him to change his locks later, though she knew it wouldn't do any good. If A had gotten in once, he/she/it could do it again. "I know that's something I should probably wait for you to offer but-"

"Of course you can," Ezra said, thrilled she wanted to take this next step, even though she basically had free reign of the place already. "What makes you bring it up?"

"I dunno. I was just thinking about us. The future, and all the things we could do with our newfound freedom." She was looking forward to inching their relationship out from behind closed doors.

"Speaking of which..." Ezra slowed the car a bit as they approached a motel on the right side of the road.

Aria looked at the red neon letters reflecting in the side window as they made the turn and grinned. "That was our last break up," she stated, as Ezra pulled into an empty parking space.

"Never again," he agreed as he shifted into park.

Aria touched his hand on the steering wheel and, connecting with his gaze, said, "_Never_."

* * *

This takes place after Aria runs to catch Ezra in the parking lot towards the end of 2.02 The Goodbye Look.

In case you don't know, TA = Teaching Assistant. A student who has taken the course and done well may get a position as a TA. Any questions, just ask.

Guest - :)

maddie - I was hoping you would like that! Even though I wrote that part long before I knew you were a Justin Bieber fan. :)  
Also, potato chips taste good with everything. They are my weakness.

Prettylittletale - Maybe I should sneak some grammar lessons into my story so you learn something during English class lol. Thanks for reading! Ezria fanfic beats boring novels any day. ;)

Notinyourlifetimehoney - Thank you. Ezra is pretty different in the books, his appearance and personality and everything, so they're separate in my head. But I totally get why you wouldn't want to read it. If you can get past that though, the books are great. I'm in the middle of the last one now!

I'd like to thank you guys for being so patient and awesome. I need to take an indefinite hiatus while I try to find the time to write down all the chapters I have planned. I know it sucks, but I'll be back! Do not worry! And PLL will be back before you know it!


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